BT. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE
JORONT'
THE LIFE
OF
JOHN MILTON:
NARRATED IN CONNEXION WITH
THE POLITICAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND LITERARY
HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
BY
DAVID MASSON, M.A., LLD., Lirr.D.,
PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
AND HISTORIOGRAPHER ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND
VOL. II.
1638-1643.
NEW AND REVISED EDITION
iontjon
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1894.
[The Right of Translation it reserved.]
MAR 2 6 1955
PREFACE TO VOL. II., FIRST EDITION.
\VIIKN" I first undertook this Work, it was my deliberate
purpose to make it not only a complete Biography of Milton,
but also, in a certain studied connexion therewith, the
channel of which might widen or narrow itself on occasion,
a continuous Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of
Ki inland through Milton's whole Time. This I announced
in the title of the Work, and in my Preface to the First
Volume ; but I am not sure that the announcement made
way fast enough to adjust that Volume at once to pre-
conceived ideas of literary form. Now, while it is the
right of the public to say what they want in the shape of
a book, it is equally the right of an author to say what he
means to offer; and, accordingly, I repeat that this Work
is not a Biography only, but a Biography together with a
History. As regards the extent and minuteness of the in-
cluded Biography, I do not anticipate that there will be much
< nn i plaint. Of brief Lives of Milton the number is already
past counting ; I have been guilty of more than one such
myself: if anything more is wanted, it certainly seems to
be some such larger and more particular Biography as that
which I am now prosecuting. What may be less according
to precedent and expectation is the combination of such a
Biography with a contemporary History. The reason for
the combination, however, lies deeper than my own mere
pleasure in the toil of a complex enterprise. Whatever may
l»y a hasty person looking in on the subject from
iv PREFACE.
the outside, no one can study the Life of Milton as it ought
to be studied without being obliged to study, extensively
and intimately, the contemporary History of England, and
even, incidentally, of Scotland and Ireland too. Experience
has confirmed my previous conviction that it must be so.
Again and again, in order to understand Milton, his position,
his motives, his thoughts by himself, his public words to his
countrymen, and the probable effects of those words, I have
had to stop in the mere Biography, and range round, largely
and windingly, in the History of his Time, not only as it
is presented in well-known books, but as it had to be re-
discovered by express and laborious investigation in original
and forgotten records. Thus, on the very compulsion, or at
least by the suasion, of the Biography, a History grew on
my hands. It was not in human nature to confine the
historical inquiries, once they were in progress, within the
precise limits of their demonstrable bearing on the Biography,
even had it been possible to determine these limits before-
hand ; and so the History assumed a co-ordinate importance
with me, was pursued often for its own sake, and became,
though always with a sense of organic relation to the
Biography, continuous in itself. I venture to think that
this incessant connexion of the History and the Biography
in my own thoughts through many years, the History
always sending me back more fully informed for the
Biography, and the Biography again suggesting new tracks
for the History, is a sufficient warrant for the form of the
publication. In the present volume, however, I have adopted
an arrangement which may suit most readers. A glance at
the Table of Contents will show what the reader is to expect
throughout, and will enable him to select or to omit. Only
I should wish it to be distinctly understood that the History
is not offered as a mere popular compilation, to serve as
stuffing or setting for the Biography, but as a work of
independent search and method from first to last, which has
PREFACE. V
cost more labour by far than the Biography, and for which
I accept equal responsibility.
It was ray wish to publish Volumes II. and III. together ;
and, though Volume II. now appears by itself, Volume III.
is ready for the press, and will follow speedily. Even so, in
recognition of much friendliness towards Volume I., the
interval between that Volume and this continuation may
seem to need an apology. Well, I will not say but that, if
there had been any extraordinary or universal avidity for
the continuation, it might have been forthcoming somewhat
sooner. Frankly, however, I can aver that I have always
been faithful in secret to my undertaking, and have devoted
to it as much time as other indispensable duties would
}H unit, and more than is likely ever to be recompensed by
anything added to the pure love of the labour. Of the multi-
plicity and extent of the researches that were required any
general account would be tedious here. There are indications
of my authorities, at the proper points, in the footnotes ;
where also I have made various acknowledgments of private
help and kindness. Perhaps, however, I may advert specially
to my obligations to the State Paper Office in London.
Where there are printed calendars of the State Papers, the
task of consulting them is easy ; one knows from the.
calendar what each paper is about, and asks for the original
of any particular paper one wants to see. Unfortunately,
\\ IK -n I began my readings in the great national Kepository,
the Domestic Papers for the period of most interest to me
were utterly uncalendared. They had, therefore, to be
brought to me in bundles (sometimes several thick bundles
for one month), and inspected carefully paper by paper, each
on chance, lest anything useful should be skipped. In this
way I had to persevere at a slow rate in my readings and
note-takings ; but I believe I can now say that, for much the
greater part of the time embraced in the present Volume, there
is not a single domestic document extant of those that used
vi PREFACE.
to be in the State Paper Office which I have not passed
through my hands and scrutinized. Apart from the informa-
tion derived for my immediate purposes, it was a valuable
education. It is rather long ago now ; and, as I write, the
memory rises of old summer-days passed in a room in the
State Paper Office, then located in St. James's Park, and of
the faces of a few others I used then to see constantly in
the same room, quietly busy, like myself, among the hand-
writings of the dead. Alas ! and of the kindly officials who
were then so ready with their aid, there was one, among the
kindliest of all and the fullest of knowledge, whom I shall
never more see, to interrogate or to thank. How much of
learning in English History through the reigns of James and
Charles and the Time of the Commonwealth died with the
gentle and accurate Mr. John Bruce ! With his name, if
with any, I may appropriately connect one closing remark
addressed especially to those few readers who may bring to
these pages something of his practice in records and strict
eye for truth. Accuracy in History is everything ; without
accuracy, all else is but as sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal. This I have tried to make my canon throughout ;
and yet I will here confess that I never can pass a sheet of
the historical kind for the press without a dread lest, from
inadvertence or from sheer ignorance, some error, some blun-
der even, may have escaped me. That there are errors in
this Volume, some of which will be detected soon, and others
never, I have no doubt. Let me hope that those who agree
with me most strongly in the main canon will be the readiest
to admit also that, when the range of inquiry is widened,
when the beaten tracks are left and one explores the thickets
on both sides for facts worthy of resuscitation, the risk of
error is necessarily increased.
EDINBUUGH : March 1871.
PREFATORY NOTE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
IN this reprint, long required, the opportunity has been
taken of inserting in Chapter II. of Book I. such new
information as has been obtained respecting the circum-
stances of the death of Charles Diodati during Milton's
absence abroad, and also of rectifying, in the text at pp.
367-368 with footnotes there, a mistake of some importance
respecting John Durie. Only at these two points has there
been any disturbance, and that but slight, of the paging of
the First Edition.
EDINBURGH : August 1894.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
APRIL 1638— NOVEMBER 1040.
HISTORY:— THE SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN REVOLT, AND ITS EFFECTS
ON ENGLAND.
BIOGRAPHY:— M.ILTO* HACK IN Ks< .1 AND: His EPITAPHWX DAUONIS,
AND LITERARY PROJECTS.
CHAP.
I. Charles's Difficulties with the Scottish Covenanters : Mission of the
Marquis of Hamilton into Scotland. — Lord Lorne and the Argyle
Family at this juncture : Montrose among the Covenanters :
Hamilton's protracted negotiations with the Covenanting leaders :
Concession at last of their demand for a General Assembly of the
Scottish Church : Preparations for the Assembly. — Composition of
the Glasgow General Assembly of Nov.-Dec. 1638: Its First Pro-
ceedings : Declinator of its authority by the Scottish Bishops :
Efforts of Hamilton to overawe the Assembly : Adhesion of Lord
Ix>rne, now Earl of Argyle, to the Covenanters : Proclamation
dissolving the Assembly : Its continued Sittings : Its Acts con-
demning recent ecclesiastical innovations, deposing the Bishops,
abolishing Episcopacy in Scotland, and re-establishing Presbytery.
— Excitement in England over the news from Scotland: Effects
of the news at Court : Resolution of Charles for a War with the
Scots : His Preparations : Counter-preparations of the Covenanters:
Choice of Field-Marshal Sir Alexander Leslie as Commander-in-
chief of the Covenanting Army : Suppression of Anti-Covenanting
demonstrations in A berdeenshire.— Reluctant march of the F.nglish
levies northwards, and departure of Charles from London, 27th
March 1639, to be with them in person : King nt York, 29th
April : Hot reception in the Firth of Forth of the Auxiliary Fl.-et
under the Marquis of Hamilton : King and his Army at Berwick
upon Tweed, 28th of May : Skirmishes on the Borders, and
Advance of Leslie's Army to Dunse : Description of the Cove-
nanting Army on Dunse Law : Disorganisation of the King's
1 'vert urea for a Treaty with the Covenanters : Conl'm
for the purpose: Issue in The Pacification of It irks, ratifying the
ppicei-.iings of the Scots hitherto, and guaranti-ein^ them annual
Assemblies of the Kirk ami free Parliaments in future: Disband-
ment of the Koyal Army, 24th June, and en-linu' »f '/" •
Bishops' War.— Chagrin of Charles : Evidences of this during the
CONTENTS.
additional month spent by him on the Scottish Border : His return
to London, 29th July, without having entered Scotland.
Pages 1-71
II. Milton back in England in July or August 1639 : Incidents in the
Horton household during his fifteen months of absence abroad :
Old friends and acquaintances : Recovered particulars as to the
date and circumstances of the death of Charles Diodati : Milton's
JSpitaphium Damonis : Translation of this Latin Pastoral, and
comments upon it. — Occupation of Milton's thoughts with the
project of an Epic on the subject of King Arthur and the British
Arthurian Legends : His determination that this Poem should be
in English and not in Latin.— Resolves to remove from Horton
and make London his head -quarters : Family -reasons for this
resolution : Second marriage of Milton's sister : Lodgings taken
by Milton in St. Bride's Churchyard, Fleet Street : His sister's
two sons by her first marriage, Edward and John Phillips, put
under his charge for their education. — Milton's occupations in the
St. Bride's Churchyard lodging through the winter of 1639-40 :
Importance in his biography at this point of the preserved Volume
of Milton MSS. at Cambridge : Proofs from this volume that
Milton had abandoned his project of an Arthurian Epic : Tran-
script of the seven pages of the Cambridge volume containing
jottings in Milton's own hand of about 100 subjects, partly Biblical
and partly from British History, noted by him as fit for poetic
treatment : Indications in these jottings of the nine or ten subjects
' that fascinated him most : Proof that Paradise Lost was already
the subject paramount in his regards : His four several sketches
of a Tragedy on this subject : Independent proof, however, that he
was balancing in his mind the relative advantages of the Epic form,
the Dramatic, and the Lyric, for his intended great English Poem.
— Interruption of these literary schemings and musings by the
political events of 1640 Pages 72-121
III. State of Scotland after the Pacification of BirTcs : Another General
Assembly of the Kirk in August 1639 : Subsequent Parliament,
and appointment of a Committee of the Estates. — Alarm among
the English Clergy of danger to English Episcopacy from the re-
establishment of Presbytery among the Scots : Bishop Hall the
spokesman of this alarm : His correspondence with Laud on the
subject : Publication in February 1639-40 of Hall's Episcopacy by
Divine Eight Asserted: Other pamphlets for and against Episcopacy.
— Continued chagrin of Charles over his bad success in Scotland :
His correspondence with Wentworth in Ireland : Arrival of Went-
worth in England : Resolution of Charles for a Second Bishops'
War against the Scots, and for calling an English Parliament to
provide the means : Preparations of various kinds meanwhile :
Wentworth made Earl of Strafford and raised to the full Lord-
Lieutenancy of Ireland : Subscriptions among the English Nobles
for the new war : Presence in London of Commissioners from the
Scottish Committee of Estates : One of them, Lord Loudoun,
arrested and committed to the Tower on a charge of High Treason.
— Meeting of the English Parliament, 13th April 1640 : The
Parliament dissolved after three weeks, and known consequently
as THE SHORT PARLIAMENT : Continued sitting and voting of the
Clergy in Convocation after the dissolution of the Parliament. —
Arrests of prominent Puritans in the late Parliament, and of other
sympathisers with the Scots : Riots in London and Southward :
Story of John Archer. — Lord Conway at Newcastle, in chief charge
of the musters for the King there : Reassembling of the Scottish
Parliament 2nd June 1640, and reappomtment of Leslie as the
CONTENTS. XI
CHAP.
Scottish Commander-in-chief: Meeting at Aberdeen, 28th July,
of another General Assembly of the Kirk : Precautions against
Anti- Covenanting risings in Aberdeenshire and the Highlands:
Leslie and his Army at their old rendezvous on the Border early
in August : Resolution of the Scottish leaders to act on the aggres-
sive this time : March of the Scottish Army into Northumberland,
20th August : Hurry of the King and Stratford to York : Fight at
Newburn, 28th August, and discomfiture of Con way : Newcastle
occupied by the Scots, and the whole of the North of England in
their possession. — Paralysis of the King's counsels at York :
Petitions to him for the immediate calling of another English
Parliament : His device of a Great Council of the English Peers at
York instead : Insufficiency of the device, and consent of the King
to the meeting of a Parliament at Westminster on the 3rd of
November: Negotiations at Ripou meanwhile for a Treaty with
the Scots : Preliminary Articles agreed upon, 16th October, and
the negotiations adjourned. — Anxieties of Laud at Lambeth : His
Draft Prayer for the opening of TUB LONG PARLIAMENT.
Pages 122-145
BOOK II.
NOVEMBER 1640-AUGUST 1642.
HISTORY:— FIRST TWO-AND-TWENTY MONTHS OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
BIOGRAPHY : — MILTON IN ALDERSOATE STREET : His ANTI-EPISCOPAL
PAMPHLETS.
I. Meeting of THE LONO PARLIAMENT at Westminster, 3rd November
1640 : View of the Composition of the Two Houses, with enumera-
tion and biographical sketches of the most notable of the Peers and
the Commoners. — Summary Account of the Proceedings of the
Parliament through the first nine months of its sittings (Nov. 1640
— Aug. 1641) : — I. Release and Compensation of Victims of the
recent "Reign of Thorough": Cases of William Prynne, Henry
Burton, John Bastwick, John Lilburne, Dr. Alexander Leighton,
and Richard Chambers. — II. Punishment of Delinquents : Arrests
of Strafford and Laud, Flight of Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary
Windebank, Retirement of the Marquis of Hamilton and Lord
Cottington, and threatened Prosecution of Bishops Wren and
Pierce and other Churchmen: Trial and Doom of Strafford.— III.
Measures for the Security and Perpetuation of Parliament : Bill for
Triennial Parliaments : Resolution for the Common Safety : Bill
for the Indissolubility of the present Parliament without its own
consent. — IV. Miscellaneous Civil Reforms : Denunciation and
abolition of Trade Monopolies : Abolition of the Star Chamber and
the Court of High Commission : Restraint on Arbitrary Taxation
by the Crown : Abolition or Revision of anomalous Jurisdictions.
— V. Conclusion of the Scottish Treaty : Resumption in London of
the Negotiations between the English and the Scottish Com-
missioners: List of the Scottish CoinmiHsioners then in London:
Vote of £300,000 of Indemnity to the Scots, in addition to the
£850 per day already agreed uj>on for the expenses of the Scottish
Army in bgbad: Hospitalities of the City of London to the
Scottish Commissioners : Popularity among the Londoners of
xii CONTENTS.
CHAP.
Henderson, Baillie. Blair, Gillespie, and other Scottish preachers :
Supposed abatement of the Covenanting zeal of the Earl of Rothes :
English Poll-Tax of June 1641 for the Indemnity and Arrears due
to the Scots : Formal Conclusion of the Treaty, August 1641, and
Evacuation of the North of England by the Scottish Army. —
Paramount importance all this while of THE QUESTION OF ENGLISH
CHURCH REFORM : First utterances of Pym and others on the
subject: Various anti-Laudian votes and orders. — Analysis of the
state of opinion in Parliament and throughout the Country as to
the desirable future Constitution of the Church of England : — I.
The High Church Party, or Party of Episcopacy by Divine Right :
This Party all but dormant since the overthrow of Laud, but its
relics represented in chief by Bishop Hall. — II. A Moderate or
Broad Church Party, advocating a Limited Episcopacy : This Party
strengthened by the recent migration of Archbishop Usher from
Ireland into England, and represented most conspicuously among
the English Clergy by Bishop Williams of Lincoln. — III. A Root
and Branch Party, demanding the total abolition of Episcopacy,
and the setting up in England of a Church somewhat after the
Scottish Presbyterian model : This Party comparatively weak for
the present among the Clergy, but with resolute lay-leaders in both
Houses, and represented outside of Parliament by a band of
Puritan parish ministers Pages 147-202
II. Removal of Milton from his lodgings in St. Bride's Churchyard to a
House of his own in Aldersgate Street : Description of the Alders-
gate Street neighbourhood in 1640, and identification of the site
of Milton's house : His neighbours in the Aldersgate Street suburb.
— Both his boy-nephews now boarded with him : Edward Phillips's
recollection of his uncle's occupations and habits in the new house :
His time divided between the teaching of his nephews and his
own readings and continued meditations for his great English
Poem. — Milton's Puritan prepossessions and antecedents: His
description of himself as " Church-outed by the Prelates " : Signifi-
cance now of his speech of St. Peter in Lycidas denouncing the
corruptions of the English Church and prophesying the "two-
handed engine at the door " : His own account of the effects upon
him of the first proceedings of the Long Parliament : His dis-
position mainly that of a passive observer till he was roused by
the movement for Church Reform : His acquaintanceship, through
his old preceptor, Thomas Young of Stowmarket, with some of the
leaders of the Root and Branch Party in the English Church
qiiestion : His resolution to step out in their aid.
Pages 203-212
III. Root and Branch Petitions to the Parliament : Bishop Hall's counter-
blast for Episcopacy in his Humble Remonstrance. — Debates in the
Commons on the Church Question : Speeches of Lord Digby, Lord
Falkland, and others, for a Limited Episcopacy : Root and Branch
Speeches : Reference of the Question to a Committee of Religion. —
Scottish Pamphlets in aid of the Root and Branch Party : Appear-
ance, in March 1641, of the English Root and Branch Pamphlet of
" SMECTYMNUUS," consisting of a Reply to Bishop Hall's Humble
Remonstrance by Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas
Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow, conjointly :
Account of the Pamphlet. — Report and Proposals of the Committee
of Religion in the Commons : Introduction of a Bill for the
exclusion of Bishops from Parliament and of the Clergy from
offices of civil jurisdiction : Delay in the progress of this Bill,
and multiplication of Petitions on the Church Question. — The
Church Question in the Lords : Motion of Bishop Williams in that
CONTENTS. xiii
House, and consequent appointment of a general Committee of
Religion, with Williams as Chairman : Clerical Conferences round
Williams in the Jerusalem Chamber. — Bill for the Exclusion of
Bishops from Parliament carried in the Commons, 1st May 1641 :
Opposed in the Lords by Bishop Hall, Bishop Williams, and
others, and thrown out, 18th June, by a majority of sixteen. —
Attack in the Commons on Cathedral Establishments : University
Petitions in their favour, and Dr. Hacket's Defence of them :
Archbishop Usher's scheme for a Limited Episcopacy in England :
Resolution of the Commons against Cathedral Establishments:
A Root and Branch Bill introduced into the Commons by Sir
Edward Deer ing: Vane, Cromwell, and Haselrig the real authors
of this Bill : Discussions on the Bill, and Hyde s obstruction to it
in Committee. — Production in the Lords, 1st July, of Bishop
Williams's Draft Scheme of Church Reform : This a scheme of
Limited Episcopacy, with retention of the Bishops in Parliament:
Small attention paid to the scheme : Some effect of it, however,
upon the state of Parties in the Church Question : Four Parties
recognisable in and after July 1641, viz. The High Church Party and
the Root and Branch Party at the two extremes as before, but the
Middle or Broad Church Party now broken into a more conserva-
tive section, advocating a Limited Episcopacy with retention
of Bishops in Parliament, and a more thoroughgoing section,
advocating a Limited Episcopacy after Usher's model.
Pages 213-236
IV. Appearance, in May or June 1641, of Milton's First Anti-
Episcopal or Root and Branch Pamphlet, entitled Of Reformation
touch iny Church Disfijifiiii- ,',i England: His prior concern with
the Pamphlet of the Five Smectymnuans: Opening Paragraph of his
own Pamphlet : Analysis of the rest of the Pamphlet, with quota-
tions: Its tremendous i>eroration.— Milton's Second Anti-Episcopal
Pamphlet, June or July 1641, entitled Of Prclatical Episcopacy:
This a special reply to a Tract of Usher's on behalf of Limited
• >pacy: Account of Usher's Tract and of Milton's Reply. —
Bishop Hall's Defence of thf Humble Remonstrance in reply to the
Smectymnuans : Rejoinder of the Smectymnuans in their Vindica-
tion of the Answer to the Humble Remonstrance : Discussion in those
Pamphlets of the subjects of Liturgy and Episcopacy. — Milton's
Third A nti- Episcopal Pamphlet, July 1641, entitled Animadversions
on the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectymnuus : Invectives
against Bishop Hall in this Pamphlet, and Proofs in it of Milton's
partnership with the Smectymnuans from the first. — Characteristic
Extracts from Milton's three Pamphlets of 1641. Pages 237-268
V. Tactics of the Commons after the rejection of their Bishops Exclusion
Bill by the Lords : Their impeachment of thirteen of the Bishops
individually for illegal proceedings in the Convocation of 1640.—
Si^iiin^ of the Treaty with the Scots, 7th August 1641, and sudden
hrputure of the King for Scotland. — Death of the Earl of Bedford :
Plague in London : Reces- • ks agreed upon by Parliament :
Appointment of Commissioners for both Houses to follow his
Maj.My into Scotland: Adjournment of the two Houses, 9th
•ember.— General View of the Political Situation at the time of
the. Recess: Motley com position of Charles's nominal Privy Council
and Ministry: Kin •,''••* independent Policy that of secret clfort- for
a Counter- ({evolution : Lord Dighy taken into the King's confi-
di-ncc, and promoted to the Ilou-i- of Pe.-r* : Other likely Hp-nis in
Enul.-ind for the King's secret policy: II mt of his first
interview with Clnrl.s. Me.-tinj,' of another General Assembly
ie Scottish Kirk, with Alexander Henderson again in the chair :
xiv CONTENTS.
CHAP.
Congratulatory Letter to the Assembly from the London Puritan
Divines, and Sympathetic Reply of the Assembly : Henderson's
motion for the preparation of a Confession of Faith, a Catechism,
a Directory of Worship, and a Platform of Church Government, to
be tendered to the English with a view to Uniformity of Religion
between the two nations : The task committed to Henderson him-
self.— Arrival of the King in Edinburgh, 14th August : The General
Assembly then over, but a Scottish Parliament in Session. —
Supremacy of Argyle in the Scottish government at that date :
Character and Antecedents of Montrose : His restlessness under
the Argyle Supremacy : His manuscript Essay expounding his
Theory of Government : His purpose the restoration of the royal
authority, but not of Episcopacy, in Scotland : His recent secret
correspondence with the King to that end : Discovery of the
correspondence, and of his Plottings against the Argyle Govern-
ment : Consequent arrest and imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle,
some while before the King's arrival in Scotland, of Montrose,
his brother-in-law Napier, and their associates in what may be
called the Merchiston House Compact.— Contrast of the circum-
stances of the King's present visit to Scotland with those of his
Coronation Visit in 1633 : His ostensible policy that of amicable
co-operation with the Scottish Parliament in the business in which
he found it engaged : That business mainly the discussion of two
questions, viz.— (1) What should be done with " The Incendiaries "
or Anti-Covenanting Delinquents of the old type, (2) What should
be done with Montrose and his fellow " Plotters " : Two months of
amicable co-operation (Aug. 14— Oct. 12), of the King with the
Scottish Parliament in these discussions : Agreement at length for
lenient dealing with both classes of offenders. — Sudden commotion
in Edinburgh, Oct. 13, over the mysterious affair called "The
Incident," consisting in a supposed Plot for the capture of Argyle,
the Marquis of Hamilton, and the Earl of Lanark, the armed
occupation of Edinburgh, and the commencement of a Scottish
counter-revolution. — King's vehement repudiation of concern with
any such plot, gradual subsidence of the commotion, and hushing
up of the affair : Resumption of business by the Parliament :
Liberation of Montrose and his associates, and condonation for the
older Delinquents. — Triumphant confirmation of the Argyle
supremacy : Appointment of a new Scottish Privy Council, with
Lord Loudoun as Chancellor, but Argyle the real head : Peerages
and other parting Honours for the Covenanting Chiefs, including
Earldoms for Loudoun and General Leslie, and a Marquisate for
Argyle : Last sitting of the Parliament, 17th November, and
Departure of the King from Edinburgh.— State of Ireland since
the execution of Strafford : Outbreak of the great Irish Rebellion,
23rd October 1641 : Massacre of English and Scottish Protestants
in Ulster and other parts of Ireland : Varying estimates of the
numbers killed Pages 269-314
VI. Reassembling of the English Parliament, 20th October 1641 : Effects
upon the Parliament of " The Incident" in Scotland and the Irish
Rebellion : Notion of a GRAND REMONSTRANCE : The document
drafted and presented to the Commons, 8th November : Debates on
it till 20th November : Midnight Scene of Excitement in the House,
22nd November. — King back in London, 25th November : His re-
soluteness on the Church Question indicated by his filling up of
vacancies in the English Episcopate : Elevation of Bishop Williams
to the Archbishopric of York, and translation of Bishop Hall from
Exeter to Norwich. — Presentation of the Grand Remonstrance to
the King, 1st December : Quotation of six of the more important
CONTENTS. \ v
< MAI .
Paragraphs of the Document.— Revival of popular fury against the
Bishops : Resentment of the King's Speech in the House of Lords,
14th December: Order of the Commons for printing the Grand
Remonstrance: King's Answer to the document: This deemed
unsatisfactory. — Christmas Tumults in Westminster and street
.skirmishes between " Cavaliers " and "Roundheads": Archbishop
Williams hustled by the mob: Protest by Williams and eleven
other Prelates that their lives were in danger and that all that
should be done in the Lords House in their absence should be null :
The Protest voted High Treason by the two Houses, and Williams
and his eleven colleagues committed to custody : Virtual disappear-
ance of Bishops at this point for twenty years from the English
body-politic. — Falkland, Sir John Colepepper, and the Earl of
Southampton brought into the King's Council, January 1641-2,
and these, with Hyde and Lord Digby, now Charles's chief
advisers: The Coup d'etat of January 4th, or Charles's demand for
the arrest and impeachment of Lord Kirabolton in the Peers, and
of Pym, Harapden, Denzil Holies, Sir Arthur Haselrig, and William
Strode, in the Commons, with his armed march from Whitehall to
the Houses of Parliament to enforce the demand in person : Scene
in the Commons House on that occasion, with report of the King's
behaviour in the House and his speeches from the step of the
Speaker's chair: His concluding words "I see all my birds are
flown," and departure from the House amid cries of "Privilege,"
"Privilege." — Mustering to arras in the City of London/and Adjourn-
ment of the regular sittings of the two Houses for six days :
Departure of the King, with his Queen and Family, from White-
hall, 10th January, never to see it again till his last return to it :
Resumption that day of the sittings of Parliament in Westminster.
— Revenges upon the supposed advisers of the Coup cCttat : Pym's
great Sj>eech on "Obstruction": More Petitions against Bishops
and Episcopacy : Bill for the Exclusion of Bishops from Parliament
carried at last in the House of Peers, 5th February 1641-2 : Com-
munications between the Parliament and the King at Hampton
Court and Windsor : Flight of Lord Digby to the Continent : Other
Councillors now round the King : His resolution to temporise till
the Queen and the Princess of Orange should be out of the country :
King at Canterbury, with the Queen and Princess, 13th February :
His assent there that day to the Bishops Exclusion Bill : Claren-
don's Reflections on that Concession : Embarkation of the Queen
and Princess at Dover, 23rd February, and return of the King, the
Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York, from Dover northwards, still
avoiding London : King at York, 19th March : Militia Ordinance
of the Parliament : Mission to Charles to request him to assent to
the Ordinance and part with his power over the Militia: His
answer, "No, by God; not for an hour" . . Pages 315-355
VII. Milton still in Aldersgate Street: Traces of him in the Poll Tax
Returns for Aldersgate Ward in July 1641 : Further traces of him
in the Voluntary Contribution by inhabitants of that ward for the
relief of the Irish Protestants, January 1641-2 : Public Talk about
Milton's first three Anti- Episcopal Pamphlets : Indignant reference
to the first of these by Fuller in his Holy and Profane State.— Pub-
lication, in January or February 1641-2, of Milton's Fourth Anti-
Kiiiscopal Pamphlet, entitled The Reason of Church Government : \
This Pamphlet avowedly an answer to a Collection of Tracts iu \
defence of Episcopacy recently published by the Oxford University
Press : Account of that Collection : Analysis of Milton's Pamphlet
in reply: Quotation of Characteristic Passages: Proofs in the
Pamphlet that Milton, at this date, was mainly a Presbyterian in
xvi CONTENTS.
CHAP.
his views of Church Government : Special examination of the Pre-
face to Book II. of the Pamphlet : Its Autobiographical interest
and purport. — Bishop Hall's Short Answer to the Tedious Vindica-
tion of Smectymnuus ( July or August 1641), and his Modest Confuta-
tion of a Slanderous and Scurrilous Libel entitled Animadversions
upon the Remonstrant 's Defence against Smectymnuus (early in 1642) :
This last a Reply by Hall, with the assistance of his son, to Milton's
Pamphlet of the preceding July in aid of the Smectyrnnuans :
Specimens of its scurrilities against Milton personally, and its
criticisms of his literary style. — Publication, in March or April
1642, of the Fifth and Last of Milton's Anti-Episcopal Pamphlets,
being his rejoinder to Hall in the form of An Apology against a
{ Pamphlet called A Modest Confutation, etc. : Milton's Self-defences
here against Hall's aspei-sions on his character, and his ferocious
retorts on Hall himself: Further expressions in the Pamphlet of
Milton's opinions on the Church question . Pages 356-409
VIII. Rupture between the King and the Parliament virtually complete in
March 1642 : Continued negotiations nevertheless between the King
at York and the Parliament at Westminster : King's appointment
of new Bishops to vacant sees : Counter-action of Parliament in a
Bill for restraining the creation of new Peers : Other instances of
this policy of move and counter-move : Release, in May 1642, of
the twelve imprisoned Prelates : Flight of Lord Keeper Littleton to
York, followed by Hyde, Lord Falkland, and Colepepper : Statistics
showing the diminished attendance in the two Houses from April
to June. — Anxiety on both sides as to the probable behaviour of
Scotland in the coming crisis : Sympathies of the Marquis of Argyle,
Johnstone of Warriston, and other chiefs of the Scottish Privy
Council, with the English Parliament : Efforts of the King to
counteract these by sending the Duke of Hamilton into Scotland :
Session in Edinburgh, from 27th July to 6th August, of another
General Assembly of the Kirk : Intimation to this Assembly by
Alexander Henderson that he had found it inexpedient to proceed
in the business, deputed to him by the last Assembly, of preparing
such standards of doctrine and church discipline as might be
submitted to the English with a view to uniformity of Religion
between the two nations : Unanimous agreement, however, that
Prelacy ought to be abolished in England and some form of
Presbytery substituted : Missives to that effect from the Assembly
both to the King and to the Parliament. — Landing of the Queen
on the North-English coast with arms and stores from Holland :
Arming and money -raising on both sides: King's Commissions
of Array versus the operations of Parliament under their Militia
Ordinance : Cromwell and his troop of horse in Cambridgeshire :
Appointment of the Earl of Essex to be commander-in-chief of the
Parliamentarian forces, with the Earl of Bedford for his Master of
Horse : Selection of the Earl of Lindsey to be the Royalist
Commander-in-chief, with the King's nephew, Prince Rupert, for
his second : Proclamation of the King, 9th August, for "suppress-
ing the present Rebellion under the Command of Robert, Earl of
Essex " : Answer of defiance by the Parliament : Raising of the
King's Standard at Nottingham, 22nd August, and Commencement
of the Civil War Pages 410-424
CONTEN
BOOK III.
AUGUST 1642-JULY 1648.
HISTORY: — COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR: THE LONG PARLIA-
MENT CONTIMKD: MEETING OF THB WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
BIOG K. U'lIY :— MILTON STILL IN ALDEUSOATE STREET: His MARRIAGE.
< 'HAP.
I. Division of the Population of England into the two opposed Parties
of the ROYALISTS or CAVALIERS and the PARLIAMENTARIANS or
ROUNDHEADS, and Statistics of the two Parties at the outset of the
War.— (I.) Proportions of the two Parties among the Peers, with
lists of the Royalist Peers, the Parliamentarian Peers, and the Non-
Effective Peers; (II.) Computation of the proportions in the
Commons House ; (III.) Computation for the Country at large and
for the English Shires individually. — Composition of the Royalist
Army at the outset, with Lists of the Officers ; Comitosition of the
Parliamentarian Army, with similar Lists: Small importance
eventually of the ingredient of professional or previously trained
military experience in either Army : Case of Oliver Cromwell : His
principle for effective recruiting.— First movements of the King's
Army : Fight of Powick Bridge (22nd September 1642) : Battle of
Kdgehill (23rd October) : Indecisive issue of the Battle, but the
Earl of Lindsey and the Royal standard-bearer among the slain on
the King's side : Advance of the King towards London, and his
entry into Brentford : Panic among the Londoners in expectation
of an immediate assault on the City : March out of the London
Trained Bands and Volunteers, under Skippon, Saturday 12th
November, to aid Essex in opposing the king's approach : The
Rendezvous at Turnham Green, Sunday 13th November : Battle
avoided, and London relieved, by the retirement of the King: Oxford
to be his headquarters through the rest of the War. — Map-sketch
of the events of the War throughout England, district by district,
to as far as Midsummer 1643: — No conclusive result as yet, but
the balance of success rather with the King : Desertions to his side :
Discovery of a Plot against the Parliament : Punishment of the
poet Waller for his share in the Plot: Complaints among the
Parliamentarians against Essex for his heavy strategy, and outcries
for a change in the commandership-in-chief : Sir William Waller
the popular favourite for that post, on account of his conspicuous
successes hitherto : Hampden also, spoken of: Death of Hampden.
Pages 425-471
IF. Question whether Milton served at any time in the Parliamentarian
Army : Proofs of the extent and accuracy of his military knowledge
and of his practical acquaintance with military drill : His own dis-
tinct intimation, nevertheless, in 1654, that he had not served in
the Parliamentarian musters : Question not entirely set at rest by
that statement : Recollection by Edward Phillips of a proposal to
bring his uncle into the Army as Adjutant^ icn* ral to Sir William
\V iller : This tradition far less credible than that Milton should
have been found serving at first in one of the regiments of the Lon-
don Trained Bands: A "John Milton" found as one of the original
officers of Alderman Pennington's Regiment of those Trained Bands,
but this not the poet : Proof positive, in Milton's sonnet " Captain or
XV111 CONTENTS.
CHAP.
Colonel" that he was not in the ranks in the famous March to
Turn ham Green on the 12th of November 1642 : Comments on the
Sonnet in this connexion. — Milton's occupations in Aldersgate Street
through the winter of 1642 and the spring of 1643 : Traces of his
brother, Christopher Milton, as then residing at Reading, and of his
father as then residing with Christopher : Consequent interest of
Milton in the Siege of Reading by the Parliamentarian Army in
April 1643 : Surrender of the Town to Essex. — Milton's journey
into the country in May 1643, "nobody about here certainly
knowing the reason " : Account of the Family of the Powells of
Forest Hill, near Oxford : Previous relations between these Powells
and the Miltons : Circumstances of Squire Powell of Forest Hill in
1643 : List and ages of his eleven children from the Forest Hill
Baptism Registers : Description of the Forest Hill mansion-house :
Marriage of Milton with Mary Powell, cetat. 18, the eldest daughter
of the family : Surprise that he should have chosen his wife from a
Royalist family, and fetched her from the very headquarters of
Royalism : Return of Milton to Aldersgate Street in June 1643,
bringing his girl-wife with him, and some of her sisters and brides-
maids : Flutter in the Aldersgate Street house for some days, with
festivities in celebration of the nuptials : Departure of the sisters
and bridesmaids, leaving Milton and his young wife to each other's
society : Discontentment of the young wife after about a month's
experiment of her new life, and contrival of a request from Forest
Hill to have her home again for a visit of a few weeks : Consent of
Milton, on the understanding that she was to return about
Michaelmas. — Milton thus again a bachelor in July 1643 : Increase
of the number of his day-pupils at this time, and arrival of his
father from Reading to reside with him thenceforward.
Pages 472-508
III. Scheme of the Long Parliament for an Assembly of Divines to co-
operate with Parliament in the work of Church Reform : Bill of
1st June 1642 for the purpose : This and two subsequent Bills for
the same purpose stopped by the outbreak of the Civil War :
Ordinance of the two Houses, 12th June 1643, convoking the
Westminster Assembly and regulating its procedure : Royal Pro-
clamation from Oxford forbidding the Assembly : Meeting of the
Assembly, nevertheless, 1st July 1643 : Alphabetical List, with
Biographical Notices, of all the appointed Members of the Assembly :
View of the business lying before the Assembly, and prescribed for
it by Parliamentary Ordinance : A Revision of the Creed and Liturgy
of the Church of England to be part of the business : A more
immediate business, however, to be the recommendation to Parlia-
ment of the Form of Church Government to be adopted in the new
National Church : Pre-assumption that the Episcopal Form of
Government was to be abolished, and some other form substituted :
Apparent inconsistency of this with the fact that Archbishop Usher,
two English Bishops, and some other Divines of known Episcopalian
sentiments, were among the originally-appointed members : This
difficulty removed by the non-appearance of most of these Divines,
and the speedy dropping-off of the one or two who did appear :
Virtual unanimity of the remanent body of the Divines in matters
of Doctrine : The Calvinistic Theology substantially that professed
by all, though with the Agreement that the appeal in matters of
Faith should always be to the letter of the Bible.
Pages 509-527
CONTI xix
BOOK IV.
ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN ISM AND ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY: THEIR HISTORY
TO 1643.
PURITANS A general name for English Nonconformists from 1564. — Fuller's
account of the first appearance of English Nonconformists advocating
the Genevan or Presbyterian form of Church Discipline : Presbyterian
movement among the English Clergy from 1572 onwards : Thomas
Cartwright the leader of the movement: Estimate of the number of
beneficed English Clergymen of Presbyterian principles in 1590 :
Suppression of the Presbyterian movement by Archbishop Whitgift :
The Presbyterian leaven nevertheless at work in England through the
reign of James, and transmitted into that of Charles : Not extinct even
under Laud's supremacy : Sudden effect upon England of the success of
the Scots in 1638 in throwing off the Episcopacy established among
them by King James and reverting to their native Presbyterianism :
Passion among the English Puritans from that date for a reform of the
Church of England on the Scottish Presbyterian model : Evidences of
this between 1638 and 1643 : Estimate that at the time of the meeting
of the Westminster Assembly all the 120 ministers of the City of
London, except three, were of Presbyterian opinions. — Tradition in
England all the while of a species of Puritanism or Anti- Prelacy more
extreme than Presbyterianism : This known afterwards as Congrega-
tionalism or Independency : Explanation of the theoretical differences
between Independency and Presbyterianism : Chief difference the as-
sertion on the part of Independency that each individual congregation,
or voluntary concourse of Christians, ought to possess self-regulating
powers, and that the assumed authority of synods over individual
congregations is no less a usurpation than Prelacy or Papacy : Possible
derivation of the germs of this theory from old English Wycliffism, or
from the recent ferment in Germany of Protestant speculations going
beyond Luther's : First crude form of English Independency, however,
that named BROWNISH : Account of Robert Brown and his propagandist
activity between 1580 and 1590 : His collapse into privacy before the
end of his life : Later and more resolute Brownists or Separatists :
Detection of a Brownist conventicle in Islington in 1592, ana arrest of
fifty-six of the culprits: Six of the chief Brownists brought to the
scaffold, one of them Henry Barrowe, after whom the Brownists were
sometimes called Barrowists : Bacon's description of the Brownists in
1592 as " a very small number of very silly and base people," and his
congratulations on the extinction of the Sect.— Bacon in error here :
Migration, between 1593 and 1608, of considerable numbers of the Sect
to the Dutch United Provinces: Notices of Francis Johnson, Henry
Ainsworth, John Smyth, Henry Jacob, Richard Clifton, and John
Robinson, as the chief preachers to these English Brownist exiles in
Holland : The six together in Amsterdam for a while, and dissensions
among them there : These dissensions partly theological, in consequence
of the adoption by some of them of the tenets of the Dutch Arminians,
but chiefly on the question of the proper relations of Nonconformists to
the Church of England : Removal of Smyth and Robinson to Leyden :
XX CONTENTS.
These two the chief representatives of the opposed sides of the contro-
versy: Smyth the most Arminian in his theology, and the most
vehement Separatist and Anabaptist, renouncing utterly all communion
with the Church of England : His death in 1610, leaving his Ley den
pastorship to a Thomas Helwisse : Special importance of Robinson in
the history of English Independency : Breadth and Moderation of his
views: His repudiation of the nickname "Brownist," and of the
necessity of absolute Separation from the Church of England : His
Independency definable as Semi- Separatism or Liberal Congregationalism:
His influence among the Exiles and among the Dutch themselves. —
Relics of Brownism still lurking in England, and Intercommunication
between these and the Anglo-Dutch Congregationalists : Bishop Hall's
denunciation in 1610 of the Brownist Sectaries, and of Smyth and
Robinson as their leaders : Abatement of the persecution of the English
Brownists in 1611, when the severe Bancroft was succeeded in the
Primacy by the milder Abbot : Return in that year of Thomas Helwisse
from Holland, and formation by him of the first Independent Congrega-
tion in London : This an obscure society of those known afterwards as
General Baptists or Arminian Baptists : Return from Holland in 1616 of
Henry Jacob, and foundation by him of a second Congregational church
in London : This a church on Robinson's principles of Moderate and
Calvinistic Independency : Jacob succeeded in the pastorship of this
church in 1624 by a John Lathorp : Difficulties of this church and
shiftings of its meeting -place after Laud's promotion in 1628 to
the Bishopric of London : Break - up of Lathorp's conventicle in
Blackfriars in 1632, and apprehension of Lathorp and forty- two
of his congregation : Independency then apparently stamped out
in England, but still with a refuge in Holland. — A wider refuge
now, however, in America : Puritans among the earliest colonists
of Virginia : Acquisition about 1617 of the name of NEW ENGLAND by
what had been known till then as North Virginia : Project among the
English Independents in Holland of an emigration to New England :
Departure in 1620 of the first Puritan Colony for New England, to
form there the settlement of New Plymouth : This Colony organised
by Robinson, and consisting of English Independents, partly from
Holland and partly from England itself, sent across the Atlantic with
his blessing : Landing of the little colony, numbering 102 persons in
all, on the American coast in November 1620 : Continued emigration
of Puritans to New England, in successive detachments, through the
next twenty years : The total Puritan population of New England
estimated at 21,000 or 22,000 souls in 1640 : View at that date of the
four main colonies of New Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
New Haven, with the outlying Plantations of Providence and Rhode
Island, and some straggling townships : The Church Organisation of
New England wholly an organisation on the principles of Independency
or Congregationalism, but with variations between strict Independency
and something like semi-Presbyterianism : Church officers and Church
forms : As many as eighty pastors of congregations in New England in
1640, most of whom had been ministers in the Church of England :
Biographical sketches of seventeen of the most notable of these : Dis-
sensions among the New England Congregationalists : These chiefly on
the question of the powers of the State or Civil Magistracy in matters
of Religion : Recorded opinions of the Early English Brownists on this
subject : Barrowe and others of them unanimous in asserting the right
of the Civil Magistrate to compel people to Church attendance, super-
intend ministers, and maintain the true Religion : Johnson of the
same opinion : Also Robinson, though in more moderate fashion : This
therefore an inherent tenet of New England Congregationalism from the
first, and the Church of New England in fact, and to this extent, a
State Church : Church orthodoxy a condition of the franchise in all
CONTENTS. xxi
the Colonies : Hence the phenomenon of prosecution and persecution of
Heresy even in infant New England : Roger Williams and his Heresy
of Individualism, Liberty of Conscience, or Absolute Voluntaryism
in Religion : His banishment from Massachusetts on that account in
1635, and migration to the Providence and Rhode Island Plantations ;
Hanserd Knoflys and other New England Baptists : Mrs. Anne Hut. Inn -
son, and her Antinotnian heresy : Condemnation of that and other
heresies by a Massachusetts Synod in 1637, and migration of Mrs.
Hutchinson and her remaining adherents to the Rhode Island Plantation :
Scheme of Roger Williams and others in 1640 for the union of the
Providence and Rhode Island settlements into an independent Colony
on democratic principles: Roger Williams then the most forward
speculative spirit, and }>ei haps the most interesting man, in all America, —
Holland still a receptacle for exiled English Independents : John Caune
and his Amsterdam congregation : Mr. Thomas Goodwin and Mr.
Philip Nye, co-pastors of an English Congregation in Arnheim : Dr.
William Ames in Rotterdam, and succeeded there, between 1637 and
1639, by Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs, Mr. William Bridge, and Mr. Sidrarh
Simpson. — Remnants of Separatism and Independency within England
itself through Laud's Primacy : Brownists and Baptists in Wales
between 1634 and 1640 : Helwisse's London congregation of Arminian
Baptists seemingly then defunct, but Lathorp's London congregation
of Robinsonian Independents still maintaining a precarious existence
under a Mr. Henry Jessey : Popularity in London in 1640 of the
Church of England clergyman Mr. John Goodwin, Vicar of St. Stephen's,
Coleman Street : His rationalistic theology and affinities with Inde-
pendency. — Increased Liberty for Nonconformity of all kinds in
England after the meeting of the Long Parliament in November 1640 :
One consequence the return of Messrs. Thomas Goodwin, Nye, Bridge,
Burroughs, and Simpson from Holland, to accept parochial charges
or lecture.ships in England : Another consequence the stoppage of the
Emigration to America, and the beginning of a return wave from New
England to the mother-country : Return of Hugh Peters and of Hanserd
Knollys : Accession of Prynne and Bastwick, after their release from
prison, to the ranks of the ardent Presbyterians, but of Henry Burton
and John Lilburne, on the other hand, alter their release, to the ranks
of the extreme Independents: Profession of Richard Baxter in 1641 of
his ignorance till then of the difference between Presbyterianism and
Indejiendency : Change in this respect from 1641 onwards : Burton's
manifesto for Independency in his Protestation Protested: Pamphlets
in answer to Burton : Thomas Edwards, and his Reasons against
Independency : Katherine Chidley's Reply to Edwards : The name
I\M I'KNDKNCY familiar in England in 1642, though with the use
of the name THE NE\\ D WAY as an alternative: Mr. Cotton's
Exposition of this "New England Way" sent over from America:
Confederation of the Four New England Colonies in 1643 into a united
body-politic : Arrival in London of accredited agents for the new
Confederacy : Arrival about the same time of Roger Williams as agent
for the outlying New England Settlements : Special importance of the
presence of Roger Williams in London just after the meeting of the
Westminster Assembly in July 1643. — Prospects of the Question of
Church Government in the Westminster Assembly : The abolition of
Prelacy a foregone conclusion, and the struggle narrowed accordingly
into a debate between Presbyterian ism or "The Scottish Way" and
Independency or "The New England Way": Presbyterianism over-
whelmingly in the ascendant in the Assembly: Names of the chief
Presbyterian divines there : Failure of a prior attempt of Oliver Cromwell
and others to secure the inclusion in the Assembly of some divines
from New England : The effective representation of Independency in
the Assembly thus left wholly to the five ministers recently returned
XX11 CONTENTS.
from Holland : Presence among the Presbyterians of the Assembly of
a few ' ' Erastians, " not holding Presbytery or any other form of Church
government to be jure divino, but regarding the choice of any particular
form in any country as an affair for the State-authorities : Selden one
of these : Peculiar position of this great scholar in the Assembly.
Pages 529-608
BOOK I.
APRIL 1638— NOVEMBER 1640.
HISTORY:— THE SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN REVOLT, AND ITS
EFFECTS ON ENGLAND.
BIOGRAPHY :— MILTON BACK IN ENGLAND : His EPITAPHIUM
DA.MONIS, AND LITERARY PROJECTS.
VOL. II
THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON,
WITH THE
HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
CHAPTER I.
THK SCOTTISH COVENANTERS — THE MARQUIS OP HAMILTON'S MISSION—
THE GLASGOW ASSEMBLY OP 1638 THE FIRST DELLUM EPISCOPALE,
OR " BISHOPS' WAR " WITH THE SCOTS.
MILTON'S return to England, after his fifteen months, more or
less, of Continental travel, took place, as he himself tells us,
" almost exactly at that time when Charles, the Peace with
" the Scots having been broken, was commencing with them
" the Second Bishops' War, as they call it : in which when the
" Royal forces had been routed in the first conflict, and the
King saw all the English likewise, and that deservedly,
" most ill-disposed towards him, he, on the compulsion of
" misfortune, and not spontaneously, not very long afterwards
" called a Parliament." l The date, more precisely, was July
or August 10. ".li.
Before resuming our narrative at this date, it is necessary,
for the general purposes of our History, that we should take
rospect of the course of IJritish events during that /
Bislwps* War, or first war between the Scots and Charles
concerning Bishops, to which Milton's words point back as
having been begun and concluded during his absence abroad.
D vi. •>•'.
4 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
For the general purposes of our History, I say, such a retro-
spect is necessary. As it was in Scotland that the policy of
despotism which Charles had been pursuing in all the three
kingdoms first sustained any efficient check, so, in the general
revolution of the three kingdoms which was approaching,
much was to depend on the fact that the initiative of revolt
had come from Scotland. Much was to depend on the fact
that it was on the impulse of a movement completed by the
northern part of the island for itself, and then let loose south-
wards, that the great English people, or the Puritans among
them, began, and for some time continued, the larger move-
ment of which England was the theatre. I do not consider
that this portion of Scottish History has been adequately
represented in its English connexions.
THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS.
By the end of April 1638 all Scotland, with some fast-
waning exceptions, was pledged to the Covenant. The ex-
ceptions may be enumerated. First, there were the Lords of
the Privy Council and other officials, whose position obliged
them to hold out for the King's measures as long as they
could ; next, there were the actual adherents of Episcopacy,
of whom, in addition to the Bishops themselves, and several
powerful Lowland houses, there was a sprinkling in some of
the chief towns, and a mass in the town and shire of Aberdeen ;
next, there were some of the Highland clans of the Aberdeen-
shire borders, and the remoter north, not much exercised in
theological controversy, but ready to go with their chiefs; and,
lastly, there were the Scottish Papists, to the number of about
six hundred persons in all, lodged also principally in Aber-
deenshire and the adjacent Highlands, under the protection
of the Marquis of Huntley.1 With the fullest allowance,
however, for these outstanding elements, there can be no
1 For a more detailed enumeration James Gordon, Parson of Rothiemay "
of the elements in Scottish society then (Spalding Club), vol. I. 61, 62. Gordon
opposed to the Covenant, see "Hist, of was an Anti-covenanter, and writes in
Scots A/airs from 1637 to 1641, by that interest.
1638-39.] I !!K SCOTTISH COVENANTERS. 5
doubt that the Scots, as a nation, had not only accepted the
Covenant, luit accepted it with tin' fervour of a simultam -MIS
outburst. For many years they had seen measures of eccle-
sia-tical polity which they disliked thrust upon them, through
the medium of their own Parliaments, by a King whom they
had uriveii to their English neighbours, and who, as sovereign
then of a larger nation, was able to act upon the smaller with
greater force than when he had lived within it. More recently,
under Charles, a persevering English Archbishop had further
olfended them, hy pressing upon them a set of " innovations,"
the effect of which would have been to make Scotland the
experimental nursery-ground for an Episcopacy more extreme
than was established in England itself. And now, in final
protest against such violence and wrong, virtually the entire
nation had bound itself, by a solemn oath before God and the
whole world, to renew the struggle against Popery begun hy
their fun-fathers, and to resist conjointly to the death the said
" late innovations," while preserving their allegiance to the
Kinij in whose name they \\eie enforced. So, at last, matters
were now understood at the English Court itself. During
the months of March and April, posts and messengers from
Scotland had been arriving there in rapid succession. There
had been messengers from the Scottish Privy Council, followed
by some of the chief Councillors themselves ; there had been
messengers from the Scottish Bishops, followed by some of
the Bishops themselves; there had been private letters to
Laud : and there had been letters from the Covenanting
Chiefs to their countrymen and acquaintances at Court,
begging them to support a new "Supplication" to the King
which had been sent up by the Covenanters as a body.
Whatever may have been the surprise in Laud's mind, and in
that of the. Kinur, as to the fad. of the commotion, they could
be under no mistake now as to its extent. " Whae's fule,
noo ? " asked Archie Armstrong, the Kind's Fool, of Laud, as
as going to the Council-meeting at Whitehall that had
hern summoned on the first news of the Covenant: and the
•jihr su nettled hi ' i hat he had Archie brought before
the Cuiim-il there and then, and sentenced to lose his place
6 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
and his Fool's coat.1 In short, in April 1638, when Milton
departed on his foreign tour, he left his countrymen intent,
with various feelings, on the " Scottish business," as on some-
thing that was likely to task the statesmanship of the ruling
powers for many months to come.
It was difficult for Charles to know how to act. The
quarrel was one between himself and his Scottish subjects,
with which England was not constitutionally concerned.
Hitherto, while seeking to rule Scotland, as well as England,
in a despotic manner, and while delegating to the English
Archbishop by his side the consideration of Scottish eccle-
siastical affairs, he had, like his father before him, been
studious to maintain the forms of distinction between the
two Crowns, and had always withheld the business of his
Scottish realm from the ordinary cognisance of his English
Council. To the thoroughgoing Wentworth, watching from
Dublin the progress of the Scottish confusion, this very fact
had seemed the real cause why it had gone so far. Not long
afterwards, when he sent over to his English correspondents
the results of his private ruminations on the subject, he did
not hesitate to hint that the confusion might be worth its
cost, if only it disposed his Majesty to adhere less firmly to
" that unhappy principle of state practised as well by his
blessed father," and led him nearer to the arrangement which
would ultimately be found necessary for the efficient govern-
ment of the whole island. That arrangement, as Wentworth
thought, required the concentration of the legislative for the
whole under his Majesty's palace-roof, and the breaking-up
of the separate apparatus of nationality which a beggarly
Caledonian tradition had preserved so long in Edinburgh.2
So theorized Wentworth ; but meanwhile the difficulty had
to be met in its existing shape. The Scottish revolt, being
1 Record of Council, of date" March had grown rich in his office ; and, after
11, 1637-8, in Rushworth, II. 470, 471 ; his dismissal, he still loafed about West-
and a letter of Garrard's to Wentworth, minster, revenging himself with jests
of date March 20, among the Strafford against Laud and the Scottish Bishops.
Letters. Archie, after having his Fool's His successor was a certain Fool called
coat pulled over his ears, was kicked " Muckle John. "
out of the precincts of the Court ; and, 2 See, in Strafford Letters, a letter of
but for his privilege as Court-Fool, he Wentworth to the Earl of Northumber-
would have been Star-chambered. He land, of date July 30, 1638.
1638-39.] THE SCOTTISH COVENANTI 7
the revolt of a nation nominally independent, could not be
treated as a rising in Yorkshire or in Lancashire might have
been. English forces could hardly be marched north, at a
short notice, to trample it out To this pass, indeed, things
might come; and to this pass Charles was resolved that, if
necessary, they should be brought. But the method was not
practicable at the moment, if for no other reason than that
the requisite English forces did not exist. For the moment,
and until the English conscience, or the official organs of it,
could be reconciled to such a stroke of imperialism, there was
but a choice of two alternatives. Either means must be
found within Scotland itself to crush the Covenanters, or
else they must be pacified by suitable concessions. The
harsher alternative was at least thought of. It was reported
that Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, and the Chancellor Spotswood,
had advised the armed organization, under the King's orders,
and with a display of English force in reserve, of the Non-
Covenanting elements in Scotland The Mackenzies, Mackays,
Macdonalds, and other extreme northern clans, following the
Earl of Seaforth, might unite formidably with the Aberdeen-
shire Gordons, Grants, Irvines, and others, under the Marquis
of Huntley ; and, in the south, there might be help from the
retainers of the houses of Hamilton, Douglas, Aimandale, and
Nithsdale. But the diligence of the Covenanters had " pre-
vened" this plan. In whatever districts of the country,
remote from Edinburgh, the dubious material was most rife,
there their agents and commissioners had been busy. They
had been so successful that, when they returned to Edinburgh,
they not only brought with them the signatures of " most of
" the name of Hamilton, Douglas, Gordon, and all the Camp-
" bells without exception," to the national Covenant, but were
able, also to report that even the northern shires of Caithness,
Sutherland, Ross, Crornarty, Nairn, and Inverness had also
" for the most part subscrivit." l Unless, therefore, the
Al'--id'M-n burgesses, a few Aberdeenshire and J.anllshiiv
lairds, and a remnant of the wilder Bighlanders, oottld stand
in civil war against the Covenanters, a Scottish civil war,
» Baillio's Letters (Laing's edition), I. 70, and Sliding, I. 87, 88.
8 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
with England merely looking on and threatening, seemed out
of the question. All this being reported at Court, and the
majority of the English Councillors being in favour of moder-
ation, it was resolved, " after many tos and fros," to send the
Marquis of Hamilton north, as a special Commissioner from
the King, with powers to treat with the Covenanters. This
was resolved on before the 10th of May, and the Marquis's
commission bears date the 20th of that month.
THE MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION.
In choosing the Marquis of Hamilton as his Commissioner,
the King had acknowledged the importance of the occasion.
The Marquis was his kinsman and trusted friend. With the
exception of the young Duke of Lennox, who, though also of
the blood-royal and a Scot by his title, was English by his
birth and associations, he was at the head of the Scottish
nobility, taking precedence of his two fellow -marquises,
Huntley and Douglas ; and, although Oxford-bred, and since
his boyhood a resident chiefly in England, he had never
ceased to attract the eyes of his countrymen, and to be
credited by them with a high influence in their affairs. Nay,
there was a special possibility of relation between him and
them, of which the world had already heard, and of which it
was to hear more. It was but eight years since a story had
come out, and had even been the subject of legal inquiry, to
the effect that the Marquis of Hamilton cherished a secret
ambition to be one day King of Scotland. Before Charles's
coronation- visit to Scotland in 1633, the Scots, it was said,
resenting his long absence, and offended moreover by a pro-
posal which he had made to have the regalia of Scotland
transferred to London, so that his coronation might take
place there, had begun to ask themselves whether the crown
which Charles did not seem to think worth a journey might
not have a fitter wearer. Aware of this state of feeling, the
young Marquis of Hamilton, it was said, had shown a disposi-
tion to traffic with it, especially at the time when, as leader of
a volunteer expedition of Scots and others in aid of Gustavus-
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 9
Adolphus (1631-2), he had begun to have military dreams.
The story from the first had had a very apocryphal look, and
the King had shown his disbelief in it. Still it slumbered
in tlic popular memory, and the present mission of the Mar-
quis naturally revive. I the recollection where it could not be
utteivd. It' such an ambition did lurk in his mind, what an
opportunity was now put into his hands ! Some small speck
of a suspicion of this kind seems to have been attached to
tin- Marquis by ill-natured opinion in certain quarters, even
at the date of his mission ; and subsequent events in his career
enlarged it into a cloud, which still hangs round his name in
Royalist histories. For our part, however, we see not the
least reason to doubt that Charles was right in treating the
suspicion with contempt, and in showing that he did so by
an net of public confidence in his cousin. The Marquis
undertook his present mission, I should say, with the most
sincere wish to fulfil it to the King's desire. As to his ability
there mi;Jit be more question. He was in his thirty-second
year ; he had seen some service, and had chatted with the
great Gustavus and known him in his rages ; he was of
courtly presence and manners : but, on the whole, his ability
was chiefly of that kind which might come from mingling
with men personally, with the advantage of being a Marquis
and of the blood-royal. In any business with the pen, I
should infer, he must have been deficient. His handwriting
is rather sprawling, and such letters of his as I have seen are
clumsy and unsatisfactory.1 It was on personal power of
negotiation, however, rather than on letter-writing, that he
was to depend in his dealings with the Covenanters. It
might not be without advantage to him in this respect that
hi- mother, the Marchioness-Dowager, a woman of spirit, and
of the family of the Cunninghams, Karls of (llencairn, was
inu' seen abundant specimens though a scrawl, is legible. Arundel'H
, mdwritinir of Charles, of L-md, Ictt rt, and with little or
•lord, of Hamilton, of Arnndel, nothing in them, in a lar^e, ]x>mpou8,
and, ii. 'm-.-t all the states- flowing hand. L-md's hand is romp... t .
;.it day. in the KOOd, *nd clear. Cottin. t.-n'- is agOOO
' 'Hire. F may iriv.-'it a- my hand. < 'Lirl. •-'- i- pcrliajw the moot
illy, the n nit of all. with th«- «-\r.-ption of
.tl'ord1-. uhirh is singularly like it,
if not beautiful, hand*. Hamilton's, but still more beautiful.
10 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
herself a most zealous Covenanter, and that his sisters were
married into the Covenanting houses of Eglintoun and
Lindsay. Moreover, he was to take with him, as his chap-
lain and private adviser, a certain Dr. Walter Balcanquhal, a
Scotsman of Cambridge training, who had risen in the
English Church to the Deanery of Eochester, had many cor-
respondents among the Scottish clergy, and was reputed a
perfect nonsuch, even among Scots, for intriguing ability.
Nay, that the hands of the noble Commissioner might be
strengthened to the uttermost, it was ordered that all Scots-
men of rank or influence usually residing in England, or who
had come up to Court to help in the consultation, should
precede him into Scotland, so as to be at his service. Some
of the Scottish Bishops and other ecclesiastics who had gone
to London were loth to obey this command, and offered
meanwhile to reside in Bath, — in Bath or anywhere, — rather
than return to their own country while it was too hot for
them. But no excuse was accepted, and go they must.1
Among the Scots who had come up to London to give their
advice, and who now preceded the Marquis back to Scotland,
was one whose name has been yet but barely mentioned in
this History. This was Archibald Campbell, Lord Lome,
better known afterwards as Earl and Marquis of Argyle.
During the troubles of the preceding year respecting the Ser-
vice-Book and the Book of Canons, none of the Scottish Privy-
Councillors, not actually in league with the Dissentients, had
been more fair and courteous to the Dissentients than he ; and,
though he still held officially with the King, the Covenanters
had conceived hopes that his meditations, which were known
to be those of a very politic mind, would bring him nearer to
them in the end. It was an event greatly to be wished. The
circumstances of Lord Lome, and of the whole Argyle family,
at that time, were peculiar. His father, Archibald, 7th Earl
of Argyle, who had held that title since 1584, was still alive,
but as good as dead to the general world. For in the life of
^Burnet's Lives of the Hamiltons 1840), 224; Baillie, I. 75, 76; and Let-
(edit. 1852), 1 — 49 ; Stevenson's Hist, of ters of Balcanquhal in Appendix to
the Church of Scotland (one vol. edit. Baillie, vols. I. and II.
1638-39.] MAJIQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 11
this now aged peer there had been two stages. His memory
could go back to the time when he was a conspicuous man in
James's Scottish Court, before James had succeeded to the
throne of England. Then ho had maintained the Protestant
reputation of liis family. By his wife, Lady Anne Douglas,
daughter of the 1st Earl of Morton, and celebrated as the
"Aurora" of the Earl of Stirling's poetry, he had been the
father of five children, all of whom had been educated as
Protestants. One of these, the only son, was the Lord Lorne
with whom we are now concerned, — forty years of age, married,
and with children ; and, of the daughters, one, considerably
older than Lorm*, was now the Marchioness of Huntley, while
another was Countess of Lothian, and a third was the widow
of Viscount Ken mure. But from these members of his first
family the Earl had long been estranged. As long ago as
1610, he had married, in the parish of St. Botolph, Bishops-
gate, his second wife, a Roman Catholic English lady, by
whom he had had a second family. Having himself become
a Roman Catholic in consequence of this marriage, he had
been abroad in the Spanish service against the Hollanders ;
and, after his return, he had resided chiefly in or near London,
in such retirement as was then possible for a Roman Catholic
of liis rank, and with little correspondence with Scotland, or
any of his first family there, unless it might be the Mar-
chioness of Huntley. Nay, in Scotland, it had been found
necessary to incapacitate him on account of his religion, and
to transfer the estates and the great hereditary power belong-
ing to the house of Argyle to his heir, Lord Lorne. This
arrangement, completed in the Scottish Parliament of 1633,
at the time of Charles's coronation -visit, and with his
consent, had naturally not improved relations between the
latin -i and the son. " Sir, I must know this young man better
" than yon do," is Clarendon's account, as if from the Kin^'>
own lips long afterwards, of what the chagrined old Earl had
said to the King about this time : " you have brought me low
" that you may raise him; which I doubt you will live to
" repent : for he is a man of craft, sublety, and falsehood,
- and can love no man ; and, if ever lie finds it in his power
12 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" to do you mischief, he will be sure to do it." About the
truth of which story, though we quote it here for reasons
that will appear, there are strong doubts. Certain it is,
however, that the superannuated Earl saw little of his son,
and led, in his old age, a life of weak and invalid dignity
very much by himself. The best glimpse I have found of
him is in a poem addressed to him by the Eoman Catholic
poet Habington, in his Castara. Among other things, Ha-
bington says :
" If your example be obeyed,
The serious few will live i' the silent shade,
And not endanger, by the wind
Or sunshine, the complexion of their mind."
A very pleasant mode of life for those who can follow it, but
not the mode of life by which the Campbells had become
Earls of Argyle, nor that by which a real Earl of Argyle,
whether a Campbell or not, could then lead in Britain !
Accordingly, while this Archibald, 7th Earl of Argyle, has
his place in the line of the Earls, he is of interest chiefly as
the father of that Archibald, Lord Lome, afterwards 8th Earl,
who, with perhaps some of the same hereditary character-
istics, was to lead so different a life, and was to transmit the
name of Argyle onwards with its greatest increase of fame.
Already, as Lord Lome, a member of the Privy Council, he
was so important a man in Scotland that it was a matter of
anxiety with the Covenanters what part he would take. For
would he not be Earl of Argyle on the death of his super-
annuated father, and was he not already Earl of Argyle in all
but the name ? To be Earl of Argyle did not yet mean all
that he was to make it mean ; but it meant more than could
then be well understood out of Scotland. It meant to be
lord of all Argyleshire, with the Isles and West Highlands
adjacent, exercising over that vast Gaelic region the power at
once of a hereditary Celtic chief and of an authorized jus-
ticiary in the name of the Scottish realm ; and it meant to
possess in Scottish affairs generally all that weight which
belonged to the brain of a Campbell, itself not originally
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 13
Celtic, wielding aa it might please, for any cause or against
any cause, those leagues of mountain, loch, and seabord over
which such sway had been won for it by ages of past acqui-
sitiveness. Only conceive, for example, one consequent
which would have followed if Lome had declared himself
inwocably against the Covenant. The Marquis of Huntley
was his brother-in-law, and it would then have been possible
for the two brothers-in-law to hold between them the whole
south-west of Scotland on the one hand, and the whole north-
east on the other, against the intermediate Lowlands. Little
wonder that Lome's behaviour, when he had been summoned
to Court to advise on Scottish affairs, was a matter of deep
interest. " We tremble for Lome," writes Baillie, " that the
" King either persuade him to go his way, or find him errands
" at Court for a long time." But the news was reassuring.
" The plainness of Lome," says Baillie in a subsequent letter,
" is much talked of: nothing he is said to have dissembled
" of all he knew of our country's grievances, of his own full
" inislike of the Books, of the Articles of Perth, of the
" Bishops' misgovernment, of his resolution to leave the
" kingdom rather than consent to the pressing of any other,
" let be of himself and his servants, with these burdens
" which were against; conscience." He is said even to have
come into personal conflict with Laud on these points ; and
there is a story that his old father, the Earl, thought it his
duty to come forth once more from his "silent shade," and
advise his Majesty that, if that son of his were allowed to go
back, sorrow and evil would ensue. But Lome, did go back,—
to become, within a few months (October 1638), Earl of Argyle,
l.y the nl.l peer's long-expected death, and to enter on a vary
grave and difficult career. Let the reader, for the present,
without prejudging that career, distinctly think of him as a
man coming into the ascendant in Scotland. Clarendon's
account of him as a person of dark and sinuous ways, against
wliiuii even his own father had inn-warned the King, has been
thr keynote to most of the representations of him by subse-
• pu-nt Kn-li-h historians. Thegeniusof Scott, too, has helped
to stamp permanently mi th«- minds <>f his own countrymen
14 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
an image of him only a shade less unlovely. Who that has
read the Legend of Montrose can forget " Gillespie Grumach/'
the wily Presbyterian Marquis, with the severe visage and
the sinister cast in one of his eyes, at whose castle-gate in
Inveraray were the block and the sawdust yet wet with the
blood of the Children of the Mist, and from whose meshes
the valiant Eitt-master, Dugald Dalgetty, escaped so splen-
didly by recognising him in his disguise, and leaving him
pinned to the ground in his own dungeon ? This Gillespie
Grumach of the novel, contrasted so strikingly throughout it
with Scott's favourite, the chivalrous Montrose, is Scott's re-
presentation of our present Lord Lome at a later period of
his life. We shall have to see both the men for ourselves
in the light of their own actions. Meanwhile let neither be
prejudged. Let Lome be imagined at the age of forty,
sombre and serious in appearance, as Vandyke might have
painted a Calvinistic courtier, certainly with an oblique cast
in one eye, and certainly with a mind of the astute order,
but whether sinister or not as yet unascertained. Let it be
remembered also that it was not he that was at present the
Covenanter, but his future rival, Montrose. A brave young
hot -head of six -and -twenty, Montrose had remained in
Scotland, one of the acting chiefs of the Covenanting com-
mittee, during that very journey of Lome's to London
from which he was now returning to aid the Marquis of
Hamilton.1
The Marquis set out from London on Saturday the 26th
of May. Eight days brought him to the Scottish border, and
on the 5th of June he was at Dalkeith, near Edinburgh. If
possible, according to his instructions, he was to avoid making
Edinburgh the seat of negotiations. The Covenanters, on the
other hand, had determined that at Edinburgh alone would
continuous negotiation be convenient ; and hence only a few
of their chiefs, and they for the sake of form, attended the
1 Douglas's Scottish Peerage, by Wood ' Countess and an Elegy on the death of
(Argyle) ; Habington's Poems, in Chal- a promising son of theirs, "the Hon.
mers's collection (where see, in addition Henry Campbell ") ; Clarendon's Hist,
to the poem to the Earl referred to in (Oxford, one vol. edit, of 1843), pp. 51,
the text, one addressed to his second 52 ; Baillie, I. 65 — 73.
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 1 "
Marquis either at the Border or at Dalkeith. At length,
chiefly by the mediation of Lome, the matter was arranged,
ami the Marquis consented to take up his residence in the
palace of Holyrood. On the 9th of June he made his public
entry into Edinburgh by way of Leith. The gathering to
him was such as might have greeted Charles himself.
Tin -re was an assemblage of Covenanters, 20,000 strong, in
addition to magistrates and officials in procession, and a mul-
titude of women and children defying number ; and at one
point of the progress, between Leith and Edinburgh, there
was a body of more than 500 clergymen (more than half the
rl.-r_ry of the entire kingdom), posted "on a brae-side on the
links," all clad in their black cloaks, and headed by "Mr.
" William Livingstone, the strongest in voice and austerest in
" countenance of us all," ready with a speech of welcome.
This speech was declined by the Marquis, from fear of what
illicit be in it ; but his demeanour was most gracious ; and
the sight of all that throng of his fellow-subjects, men, women
and children, doing homage to him as he passed, and crying
out this and that about their liberties and their religion,
moved him even to tears.1
And now for the great work of the negotiation. Who, in
the first place, are the negotiating parties ? On the one side
is the Marquis himself, surrounded by those Lords of the
Council and others who, not having subscribed the Covenant,
miurlit be presumed anxious to bring about whatever settle-
ment the Marquis might propound as the King's pleasure.
Tin -re was the Chancellor- Archbishop Spotswood, with other
prelates more in the background ; there were the Treasurer
Traquair, and the Privy Seal Roxburgh ; there was the Mar-
quis of Huntley ; there were the Earls of Marischal, Mar,
Moray, Linlith^ow, Perth, Wilton, Kinghorn, Tullibardine,
Haddinuiuii, Annandale. Lauderdule, Kiniioull. Dumfries,
Southesk, Angus, and Morton ; there were the Lords Lome,
Belhaven, Elphinstone, Napier, Dalzell, and Almont; and.
aniniiu' oth.. ix, ih,. iv \\vre the Treasurer-Depute Sir Jam.-
< 'armiehael, the King's Advocate Sir Thomas Hope, the ( 'lerk-
1 Kushworth, II. 749, 750 ; Baillio, I. 82—84 ; and Stevenson, 226, 227.
16 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Eegister Sir John Hay, the Chief Justice Sir William
Elphinstone, and the Justice-Clerk Sir John Hamilton. Not
that all of these were equally committed. Some, such as
Lome and Sir Thomas Hope, were almost completely with
the Covenanters at heart ; and others were waiting anxiously
for the production of the Marquis's proposals, and hoping that
they would not be too Prelatic. On the other side were the
Covenanting Chiefs, lay and clerical, acting together under
regular commissions for the country at large, and suffering
nothing to go forth as the opinion of the body until after
it had been fully determined in their four Committees, or
" Tables," of the Nobles, the Lesser Barons or Lairds, the
Burghs, and the Clergy, respectively or in conference. Prom
time to time, as the negotiation goes on, the composition of
the several Tables is changed, to avoid the inconvenience of
detaining the same men so long from their homes and occu-
pations. The leaders are, however, the same throughout.
Among the Nobles are the Earls of Eothes, Cassilis, Montrose,
Sutherland, Eglintoun, and Lothian, and the Lords Loudoun,
Wemyss, Home, Lindsay, Tester, Burleigh, Cranstoun, Boyd,
Sinclair, and Balmerino ; among the Lairds and the Commis-
sioners from the Burghs are Johnstone of Warriston, Douglas
of Cavers, Gibson of Durie, John Smith of Edinburgh, &c. ;
and among the Clergy are such resident ministers of Edin-
burgh as Mr. Andrew Eamsay and Mr. Henry Bollock, and
such distinguished deputies from other Presbyteries as Mr.
Alexander Henderson, Mr. David Dickson, Mr. Andrew Cant,
Mr. Bobert Baillie, and Mr. Samuel Butherford. Young Mr.
George Gillespie, just appointed to the parish of Wernyss in
Fifeshire, and now known as the author of the anonymous
book, " The English-Popish Ceremonies," which had given
such offence to the Prelatists in the previous year, is begin-
ning to be talked of as one of the "rising wits" of the
clerical body, and to have some weight in the counsels of his
seniors. The men named are, in fact, the real Government of
Scotland, reposing on the all but universal feeling of the
people : the Marquis is but the plenipotentiary sent to treat
with them, and associated for that purpose with the wrecks.
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 17
of the former Government or King's Council. Between UK-
two parties move the intriguers, Balcanquhal and others.
Ortuin pens also are permanently busy on both sides. On
the side of the Covenanters it is Mr. Henderson, minister of
Leuchars in Fifeshire, that is always applied to when a paper
of unusual weight and ability is wanted ; and it is the lawyer,
Johnstone of Warriston, that registers everything, takes copies
of everything, sees that all is in form, and unites the vigilance
of a secretary-in-chief with the laboriousness of a clerk.
Negotiations must be on some basis. It is implied in the
very word that certain demands are put forth on the one side
and certain offers on the other, and that there is a trial of
firmness and skill to determine in what way the offers and the
demands are to be made to meet. What were the demands
of the Covenanters ? These had already been formally made
known at Court as reducible to eight : ( 1 ) the discharging of
the Service-Book and the Book of Canons ; (2) the abolition
of the High Commission as a judicatory in any form ; (3) the
repeal of the Articles of Perth ; (4) the limitation of the civil
power of Kirkmen, if not their entire exclusion from Parlia-
ment ; (5) the discontinuance of certain tests and oaths used by
the Bishops to exclude or eject persons of Presbyterian views
from parish-livings, schools, and the Universities; (6) the
restitution of General Assemblies of the Kirk, and the
speedy holding of one ; (7) the speedy calling of a Parliament;
(8) liberty both in the Assembly and in the Parliament to dis-
cuss other reforms in detail.1 As meeting these demands, what
was the Marquis empowered to offer ? We know this very
exactly now from certain documents which he carried witli
him, bearing date before his commission, but which he did
not find it convenient or indeed possible fully to divulge.
One was a Royal Declaration or Proclamation, which lie was
to publish when he saw fit. Its purport was that his
Majesty, being and always having been a sound Protestant,
could not but consider the fears of his Scottish subjects as to
;niy int.-ii'l.-'l " iiil.riiiLiii)^ of Popery " among them under his
i ul«- totally unreasonable ; but that, to allay these fears, he
» See Original Paper in Stevenson, 218—220.
VOL. II C
18 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
was willing that the Service-Book and the Canons should not
be pressed except in a legal way, that the High Commission
should be rectified, and that an Assembly and a Parliament
should be called at a convenient time. These favours, how-
ever, were to be conditional on the immediate return of his
Scottish subjects to their allegiance; and this was to be
proved by their appearing before competent authorities " in
burgh and land " and individually renouncing the Covenant,
and by their " delivering up, or continuing with their best
endeavours to procure the delivering up," into the hands of
the Council or their agents, all copies of the Covenant.1 In
the private instructions of the Marquis there were certain
farther explanations for his own guidance. Before publishing
the Koyal Declaration he was to endeavour to get all the
Council to sign it and swear to assist in executing it ; no
petitions were to be received against the Declaration or against
the Articles of Perth, and, if any dared to protest against the
Declaration, they were to be arrested ; nevertheless, the
Articles of Perth were in the meantime not to be enforced,
and all acts enforcing the Service-Book were to be void. The
time to be allowed for delivering up the Covenant was to be
six weeks after the publishing of the Declaration ; and, if
necessary, it was to be announced that, should there not be
sufficient power in Scotland to overcome opposition, power
should come from England, and the King himself with it,
" being resolved to hazard his life rather than suffer authority
" to be contemned." Finally, should words be of no avail, the
Marquis himself was to "command all hostile acts whatso-
ever," and so commence the inevitable war.2
The Marquis had not been two days on the Scottish side of
the Border when, as if informed of the real state of things
by the very air that blew about him, he had become con-
vinced that it would be madness to publish the King's De-
claration, or even to let its contents be generally known. To
this effect he must have written to the King before leaving
1 Burnet's Lives of the Hamiltons 2 See the instructions in Rush worth,
(1677), pp. 43, 46. Burnet gives two II. 746, 747 ; and in Stevenson, 222—
drafts of the Proclamation, — a stronger 224.
and earlier, and a milder and later.
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 19
I )alkeith ; for, in a letter dated " Greenwich June 11," Chni l.-s
replies in a strain of anger and chagrin. " I expect not," he
says, " anything can reduce that people to obedience but force
" only ; in the meantime your care must be how to dissolve
" the multitude, and, if it be possible, to possess yourself of
" my two castles of Edinburgh and Stirling (which I do not
" I'xpect) ; and, to this end, I give you leave to flatter them
" with what hopes you please, so you engage not me against
" my grounds, and in particular that you consent not to
" the calling of Parliament nor of General Assembly until the
" Covenant be disavowed and given up, — your chief end
" being now to win time, until I be ready to suppress them."
Hi- Majesty farther says that, should the Declaration be pub-
lished, the Marquis need not observe his previous instruction
to declare traitors all who should not within six weeks obey
the command to renounce the Covenant, but may wait till he
hears that a fleet " hath set sail for Scotland " before adopting
that measure.1 Received by the Marquis in Edinburgh on
the 15th of June, this letter becomes a supplement to his
inal instructions.
To narrate step by step the progress of the negotiations or
seeming negotiations between Hamilton and the Covenanting
leaders in Edinburgh would be tedious. A sketch must suf-
fice : — Acting on his paramount instruction " to win time,"
the Marquis prudently kept the Royal Declaration in his
pocket, not venturing to try its effects even on the Coun-
cillors. But the Covenanters, having obtained a general
knowledge of its contents, and especially of its demand of a
surrender of the Covenant as conditional to even such un-
satisfactory scraps of concession as it promised, were prepared,
whensoever and wheresoever it might be published by the
royal heralds, to meet it with as open a protest. Abroad
thniiigh the land also flew the news of what the unpublished
Proclamation contained, so that all the pulpits rang with
preachings in defence of the Covenant and against its sur-
render. A powerful Paper of Reasons on the same subject
the pen of Henderson was put in circulation. Nay, it
' I!. i-l, worth. II
20 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
began here and there to be discussed, not quite secretly,
whether, if the Parliament and the Assembly were obstinately
refused by the King except on impossible conditions, the
Laws of Scotland and of Nature might not permit equivalent
conventions on the mere authority of the subject. Startled
more by this last turn of the discussion than by anything else,
Hamilton went to the utmost length of kindliness allowed
him by his instructions. He conferred with Henderson ; he
signified that it was in his Commission to promise both an
Assembly and a Parliament ; and, as for the surrender of the
Covenant — why, " surrender " was a very strong word, and
the Marquis could sympathise with the Covenanters in their
feelings about it ; but then they also ought to be reasonable !
The King was a crowned head ; he had his reputation to sus-
tain among crowned heads ; this Covenant of a whole nation
was an anomaly in Europe, at which all Sovereigns were
looking with surprise ; how could Charles but feel the matter
keenly ? But might not the Covenanters themselves smooth
the way for him ? Might they not put forth, say, some " ex-
plication " of their Covenant that would rob it of its defiant
and disloyal character, and enable the King to be gracious
without too evident an abatement of his kingly dignity ?
Such was the tenor of Hamilton's suggestions respecting
the Proclamation which he still prudently withheld. He
had a kind of success. The Tables, on the 23rd of June, did
agree to an " explication " of the Covenant, in which, while
reiterating their claims, they professed them and the Cove-
nant to be, in their intent, consistent with that loyalty which
they owed to the Government of his Majesty, consecrated as
it was " by the descent and under the reigns of 1 0 7 kings."
Having obtained this explication, and regarding it as at least
something that could be pointed to as a proof of his good
management, Hamilton suddenly announced that it would
be necessary for him to return to Court for personal confer-
ence with his Majesty. The Covenanters, though a little
vexed at this resolution, were reconciled to it by the promise
that none of the Bishops should accompany him. They saw
the Marquis depart on Sunday the 1st of July. The very
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 21
next day, however, he was back among them. Before he had
got far from Edinburgh, letters from the King had reached
him in answer to previous letters of his relating to the expli-
cation of the Covenant and other matters. "As concerning
" the explanation of their damnable Covenant," said his
Majesty in a letter dated from Greenwich June 25, " whether
it l>e with or without explanation, I have no more power in
" Scotland than as a Duke of Venice, — which 1 will die rather
than suffer ; yet I command the giving ear to their explana-
" t ion, or anything else, to win time." But the reputed inten-
tion of the Covenanters to hold an Assembly and Parliament
without his leave had touched his Majesty to the quick. He
could " hardly be sorry," he says, if they did go that length ;
" it would the more loudly declare them traitors and the
" more justify my actions " ; and " therefore, in my mind, my
Declaration should not be long delayed." This was a bare
opinion, he added, and no command. Evidently, however,
the Marquis received it as a hint that it might be to his dis-
credit at Court if he returned with the Declaration still in
his pocket. Hence his reappearance in Edinburgh. During
two days he was busy with the Councillors, and with such
effect that he obtained the signatures of all of them to the
Declaration, except Lome and Southesk ; and on the 4th of
'Inly the Declaration was in all form proclaimed at the Cross
in the High Street. Not exactly the original Declaration,
however, — which even the Councillors would not have signed,
—but a modification of it, dated " Greenwich June 28," con-
taining the same promises as the original, and similar threats,
but rather implying the surrender of the Covenant than
directly commanding it.1 For the Covenanters, however, the
modified Declaration was as bad as the original would have
been, and they met it as they had resolved they would. The
moment that tin- l'r»< -lanmtion had been made by the royal
In -raids at the Cross, .Johnstone of Warriston, stepping forward
on a wooden platform which had been erected for the purpose
on thr same SJH.I, read forth, amid the cheers of the multi-
tude, tin- prepared document in which he and other repivscnt-
1 800 the Declaration in ttiwh worth, II. 751
22 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
atives of the Covenanters, in their several orders as Nobles,
Lairds, Burgesses, and Clergy, did protest against the Koyal
Declaration as " miskenning, passing over, and in effect deny-
ing " all the matters at issue, as doing wrong to the motives
of the nation, and as, in its offers, utterly insufficient.1 For a
day or two afterwards all was anger and turmoil. Eothes,
Montrose, and Loudoun came to high words with the Mar-
quis ; and the Councillors who had been induced to sign the
Declaration repented of their act as a mistake, recovered the
copies they had signed, and tore them to pieces. At length
ruffled spirits were somewhat calmed, and, on the same
understanding as before, the Marquis on the 8th of July did
set out for London.
While the Marquis is in London, conferring with the King,
let us take a view of the situation for ourselves. Readers of
Clarendon may remember what a glowing picture he gives, in
the First Book of his History, of the singularly happy condition
of the three kingdoms during that period of " Thorough," or
arbitrary government by the King, which had now lasted for ten
years. Full warehouses, bursting granaries, a prosperity casting
the golden days of Elizabeth into the shade, "the greatest
calm and the fullest measure of felicity that any people in
any age for so long a time together have been blessed with "
— such is the picture. When this unexampled calm was
disturbed by a rude blast from the North, when into this
paradisaic condition of things there entered the Devil from
Scotland, then, proceeds the historian, it was owing only to
the King's exceeding clemency, to " his excellency of nature
and his tenderness of blood," that the interruption was not
straightway quashed, and peace and Paradise restored. It
was not from lack of means ! There was a " stronger fleet at
sea than the nation had ever been acquainted with " ; the
revenue had been " so well improved and so warily managed
that there was money in the Exchequer proportionable for
the undertaking of any noble enterprise," much more for
the putting down of a petty Presbyterian revolt ; the English
army had " as good and experienced officers as were to be
1 See Protestation (a long document) in Rushworth, II. 756 — 761.
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 23
found at that time in < 'hristrmlnm " ! The contrast between
these assertions of Clarendon, which were but his hazy recol-
lections of the time long after it was gone, and the authentic
statements of contemporary documents, is one of the curiosi-
ties of historical literature. Charles, we have seen, had
negotiated with the Scots only because he lacked means for
a more imperious mode of dealing with them. Nay, while
negotiating with them, as we have seen, it was still only " to
win time." Before Hamilton had gone to Scotland, and while
he had been there, every possible preparation had been thought
of that might enable the King to break oft' negotiation and
resort to a stronger policy. Orders had gone out respecting
th'- mustering of the trained bands in the English counties,
respecting the strengthening of the northern English towns,
respecting the equipment of Admiral Penniugton's fleet for
service on the East Coast, and respecting the collection of
ship-money. In the King's state of destitution he had even
grasped at a mode of perplexing the Scots the most sly
and desperate imaginable. There was then in Ireland, or
going and coming between England and Ireland, a cer-
tain Randal MacDonnell, Earl of Antrim, an Irish Roman
Catholic peer of broken fortunes, " notorious for nothing,"
according to Clarendon's character of him, " but for having
married the dowager of the great Duke of Buckingham within
a few years after the death of that favourite."1 He was
notorious, however, in Scotland on another account. He had
a hereditary quarrel with the Campbells of Argyle, and was
regarded as the chief and patron of those lawless tribes of the
Clandonald, " Children of the Mist," who hovered between
I it-land and the Scottish Highlands in dread of the Earl of
le's police and his dungeon and gibbet at Inveraray. To
this Irish Earl the King actually granted a secret commission
to raise a force of Irishry with which to invade Argyleshire,
ostensibly on his own private account, and to regain for his
IfaoDonnells and Macdonalds the lands in those parts which
they flainn-d as originally theirs, but with tin indemnity for
whatever he might do in that behalf. And yet, with all these
i Clar. Hut. p. 633.
24 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
preparations, no such progress had been made as that the
negotiations with the Scots could be broken off. So far was
there from being any concealment now of the " Scottish
business" from the English Council that a Committee of the
Council had been appointed expressly for Scottish affairs. It
consisted of the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, the Earl of
Northumberland, Lord Cottington, Sir Henry Vane, and the
two Secretaries, Coke and Windebank. Hear how one mem-
ber of this committee, the Earl of Northumberland, writes
to his friend Went worth at Dublin on the 23rd of July, or
after Hamilton had been back from Scotland about a fort-
night : " It was expected that yesterday at Theobalds [a
royal country-seat in Herts, about twelve miles from London]
" the King would take his resolution of peace or war with
" the Scots. Of the committee for these affairs, the Marshal
" [Arundel], Cottington, and Windebank are all earnest to
" put the King upon a war. . . . The Comptroller [Vane] is
" for peace, and Secretary Coke rather inclines that way than
" the other. . . . Nothing that I have yet heard doth per-
" suade me to be of the Marshal's opinion. In the Exchequer
" (being examined upon the occasion) there is found but
" £200 ; nor, by all the means that can yet be devised,
" the Treasurer [Bishop Juxon] and Cottington, engaging
" both the King's and their own credits, are able to raise but
" £110,000 towards the maintaining of the war. The King's
" magazines are totally unfurnished of arms and all sorts of
" ammunition ; and commanders we have none, either for
" advice or execution. The people through all England are
" generally so discontented, by reason of the multitude of
" projects daily imposed upon them, as I think there is reason
" to fear that a great part of them will be readier to join the
" Scots than to draw their swords in the King's service. And
" your Lordship knows very well how ignorant this long
" peace hath made our men in the use of arms." These words
of Northumberland at the moment, it will be observed,
hardly accord with Clarendon's subsequent fancy picture.
The iron-handed Irish Viceroy, to whom the words were ad-
dressed, had formed an opinion of his own on the subject.
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 25
That " the gallant ( ;«>spellers " of Scots ought to be chastised
and subdued he had n<» duiiht. Hut, as to the policy to be
pursued, la- would take a middle course between the war-
party and the peace-party in the English committee. On the
one huml, In- would make n<> farther concessions to the Scots
than in the Kind's recent Declaration ; he would grant them
no Parliament. On the other hand, he would not, with
Arundel, plunge into immediate war. He would wait over
winter, pressing on all kinds of preparations; and, in the
spring, if the Scots had not come to their senses, he would
seize Leith, and commence a series of operations which should
not end, he says, till the Scots " had received our Common
" Prayer Book, used in the churches of England, without
" any alteration, and the Bishops settled peaceably in their
" jurisdictions ; nay, perchance, till I had conformed that
" kingdom all in all, as well for the temporal as ecclesiastical
" affairs, wholly to the government and laws of England,
" and Scotland governed by the King and Council of England,
" in a great part at least, as we are here " (i.e. in Ireland).
Whatever Wentworth says or writes has the merit, at least,
of being emphatic.1
The more peaceful counsels of Northumberland having pre-
vailed, though with a reserve in the King's mind of plans not
unlike Wentworth's, it was resolved that Hamilton should
return to Scotland.2 By a new set of instructions, dated
" London July 27," he was empowered to resume his negotia-
tions on an advance of terms. He was to yield the Scots
their General Assembly, only staving it off to as late a period
of the year as possible, and employing himself on what was
willed its " prelimitation," — that is, on such arrangements
and bargainings with the Covenanters beforehand as might
make the Assembly, when it did meet, as innocuous as possible.
1 See the letters quoted in this para- strongly in favour of peace, is quoted
pmphinthe Thelast by Stevenson (214— 216) and other his-
in reply to NorthuinKerl.md, is torinns. Such a speech w.i> in riivuln-
teJulvSO. ti.-n in Lun, 1,, n ; J.ut, as a MS. co|-\ »f
- S..IMU shore in disposing the King it which I have soon in th« St.it. Ptotc
• -fill imtliods has boon attri- Office, of date July If-, is , -ml. .rued by
buted to the yomur Duk.- ..f LI-MM..X. a Windi-K-mk " DofLtOOl : hi- supposed
speech of whom at the Council -Board. spoeche," I infer that it wsi* m>t ^ -miinc.
26 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
It was to be prearranged, if possible, that the Bishops should
sit in it, that a Bishop should be its Moderator or President,
and that the debates should not run in very deep channels.
Still, even if there should be little or no success in these
efforts at " prelimitation," the Assembly was to be considered
as granted. There might also be promised a Parliament, to
meet soon after the Assembly. In short, " you are," said the
instructions, " by no means to permit a present rupture to
" happen, but to yield anything, though unreasonable, rather
" than now break." On that point, of the surrender of the
Covenant, which had been ostensibly the reason of the
Marquis's return to Court, there was a special device by
which, it was hoped, difficulties would be obviated.
Thus reinstructed, the Marquis was back in Edinburgh on
the 10th of August. During his absence there had been
much preaching and praying all over Scotland to keep men's
minds up to the mark of the emergency. Advantage of the
brief leisure had also been taken to look after those parts of
the country where the Covenant was weakest, or where on
other grounds there was danger.
During a great part of the month of July, Lome, I find,
was away on very distinct business in his Argyleshire
domain. It was the season when that romantic region of
Scotland, now so well known to tourists, reclothes its wintry
wildness with the annual return of beauty, and the ex-
panses of sea and promontory, of island and channel, of
winding loch and heathy mountain, are as often under the
sunshine and the clear blue as enwrapped in the grey mist.
Argyleshire nature was the same then as now ; but man how
different ! Not in the spirit of a modern admirer of the pic-
turesque was the lord of that region then surveying its various
scenery, traversing its mountain-passes, sailing in his galleys
down Loch Fyne, or skirting the long peninsula of Cantire,
whence the gaze seeks the coast of Ireland. " My dewetie
" to his sacred Majestie," we find him writing to Wentworth,
as Viceroy of Ireland, on the 25th of July, " tyes me to late
" your lordship know that there is zitt some few resting in
" thir pairtes of the rebellious race of Clandonald, who hes
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 27
" evir" &c. In short, the astute Lome had obtained intelli-
gence of Antrim's intended expedition; he was now taking
his precautions ; and one of these was the opening of a cor-
respondence with Wentworth with a view to clearer infor-
mation. The correspondence was continued through several
Inters till the end ut' the year. In Wentworth's reply to
Lome's first letter there is great evident respect ; but he takes
tin- liberty of hinting that Lome's conduct in such a crisis
was not quite what was to be expected from a person of his
lordship's " blood and abilities," of whom the world had " so
great an opinion." Lome again answers, with equal polite-
ness, in more civilized spelling than in his first letter, and
with an irony and at the same time a strength of reasoning
which must have made even Wentworth wince.1
But it was not only against the wild race of Clandonald,
Children of the Mist, that precautions for the Covenant had
been taken within Scotland. Quite on the opposite coast,
and among a race as little Celtic in their temperament or
ways as it would have been possible to find in the island,
there was a block of opposition. At that point of the Scottish
east coast, nearer to Norway than to London, where the
gloomy Don and the sprightly Dee join their differing waters
in the ocean, stands the town of Aberdeen. Partly from
native tendencies, partly from the influence exercised by the
" Aberdeen Doctors," this town was the fastness of Prelacy
in Scotland. There were Covenanters in it; but hitherto
the tide of Evangelicism, as understood by the rest of the
nation, had dashed vainly in the main round the city.
Accordingly, while Lome had been away looking after the
children of the mist, a deputation from the Tables, including
the Earl of Montrose, Henderson, Dickson, and Cant, had
been commissioned to visit Aberdeen and try what could be
done with its children of the granite. Never were Henderson,
Dickson, and Cant more hard beset in their capacity of
ers than in this visit to Aberdeen (July 20—28). Their
preachings to the students in the yard of Marischal College,
i The following i« the series of the text) ; 2. Wont worth to Lome, Aug. 28;
letters in th- : 1. Lorno 3. Lome to Wentworth, Oct. 9. The
to Wentworth, July 25, 1638 (iw in the letters arc worth reading.
28 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
and to the townspeople elsewhere, in behalf of the Covenant,
brought out the Aberdeen Doctors — Dr. John Forbes, Dr.
Eobert Barren, Dr. William Leslie, Dr. James Sibbald, and
Dr. Alexander Eoss — to the defence of their flocks and their
principles. Not content with their spoken arguments, the
Aberdeen Doctors had set the local press to work ; and, after
the Covenanting deputies had left the town, they were pur-
sued with printed Eeplies and Duplies, which it tasked their
subsequent industry to answer. These pamphlets in defence
of Prelacy from Aberdeen found their way at once into
England.1
Both Lome and the Aberdeen Deputation were back in
Edinburgh in time to take part in the new negotiation with
Hamilton. It lasted but a fortnight, or from August 10 to
August 25. We have said that, in the matter of the
Covenant, Hamilton had been provided with an ingenious
contrivance which, it was supposed, would answer the pur-
pose. It was a kind of homoeopathic remedy, and seems to
have been suggested by Hamilton himself. If the Scots
would have a Covenant, might they not have a Covenant
somewhat like their own, but of a quieter nature, and ap-
proved by the King, — nay, signed by him along with them ?
Their own Covenant consisted of a revival of a document
known as the " Short Confession of Faith, or First National
Covenant, of 1580," with certain subsequent additions and
an attached " bond " or oath adapted to the immediate
exigency. But out of the old documents of the Scottish
Kirk might not a Covenant be devised less fierce in expres-
sion and yet sufficiently orthodox and Knox-like, and might
not a " bond " of a loyal nature be attached to this Covenant ?
1 Baillie, I. 97; and the Pamphlets (pp. 37). 2. "The Answers of some
themselves as follows: — 1. "General Brethren of the Ministrie to the Re-
Demands concerning the late Covenant, plyes of the members and Professors of
propounded by the members and Pro- Divinitie in Aberdene concerning the
fessors of Divinity in Aberdene to late Covenant: Printed by R. Y., his
some Reverend Brethren who came maj. Printer for Scotland, 1638" (pp.
thither to recommend the late Covenant 42, and signed by Henderson and Dick-
to them ; together with the Answers of son). 3. "Duplies of the members and
these Rev. Brethren to the said De- Professors of Aberdene to the second
mands ; As also the Replyes of the Answers of some Reverend Brethren,
Profes
foresaid members and Professors to &c. 1638 " (pp. 133). — All these
their Answers : Printed by His Ma- pamphlets were r
jestie's Printer for Scotland, anno 1638 " Aberdeen in 1662.
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 29
It is not worth while to describe the plan more minutely,
for the Marquis seems to have found it hopeless and to have
quietly dropped it. He devoted all his strength to the
" prelimitation " of the promised Assembly, and this more
especially on two points. He was anxious, first, that the
Assembly should be in the main a clerically composed body,
in the election of the members of which laymen should have
no voice; and, secondly, that the scope of its deliberations
should be restricted beforehand. On the first of these points
he seemed likely at first to have some success ; for the Table
of Ministers (such is clerical human nature) were rather taken
with the idea of an Assembly elected solely by themselves.
Even they, however, were far from being agreed on the point ;
and, the Tables of the Nobles, Lairds, and Burgesses being
unanimous for the electoral rights of laymen, the matter was
settled, and a treatise was put forth clearing up, definitively
for the future, the whole question of the place and power of
lay-elders in the Presbyterian system. On the other point
also Hamilton found the Tables resolute. They would have
no " prelimitation " of the business of the Assembly ; and, if
they could not have a full and free Assembly by his Majesty's
authority, they would call one without that authority. To
the Marquis's alarm, this matter of an Assembly by popular
authority alone began to be boldly discussed both in conference
and in print. There was one incident which contributed to
this boldness and to the difficulties of the Marquis in dealing
with the Covenanters. The Marquis of Huntley's son, Lord
Gordon, had arrived from Court (August 13) with letters from
the King to the Magistrates and Doctors of Aberdeen, thank-
ing them and the town for the loyal stand they had just made
against the Covenant ; and it was quickly known that Hamil-
ton had backed these letters with others from himself to the
same effect, and with a remittance to Dr. Barron of £100 to
keep the press going with Aberdeen pamphlets. Suspicion
of the Marquis's good faith was the natural result; and, whrii,
that h< had again reached the limit of his instruc-
tions, he proposed once more to return to Court to have them
<-nlarged,it was rather sternly that the Covenanters consign in I
30 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
to the new delay. Let him go, but let it not be for more
than twenty days ! l
The second return of the Marquis to Court was still only
" to win time." The same reasons against a rupture with the
Scots that had led to the negotiation at first, and to its re-
newal after the first interruption, required that it should be
renewed again at any hazard. Almost punctually, there-
fore, within the twenty days (Sept. 15) the Marquis was back
in Edinburgh, and this time, it was announced, with all the
requisite power. Indeed, the news of the great concessions
which he was now authorized to grant had preceded him into
Scotland, greatly to the joy of the Covenanters, but so much
to the chagrin of the Scottish Prelates that, considering their
cause abandoned by the King, and unwilling to await the
vengeance likely to be executed upon them by the forth-
coming Assembly, most of them had packed up their all,
and were met by the Marquis in Yorkshire on their way to
exile in English towns. It was easier for the Marquis, in a
country almost wholly Presbyterian again by this flight of the
Bishops, to proceed according to his new instructions. They
were dated "Oatlands Sept. 9," and authorized him abso-
lutely to revoke the Service-Book, the Canons, and the High
Commission, to discontinue the Articles of Perth and promise
the royal assent to their total repeal by Parliament, to call a
General Assembly speedily at any place except Edinburgh,
and to fix a day for the meeting of a Parliament after the
Assembly. These concessions were, of course, accompanied
with drawbacks, but nothing so stringent as before. As
regarded the " prelimitation " of the Assembly, the Marquis
was to yield to the Covenanters so far as to give his Majesty's
sanction to proceedings in the Assembly having for their end
a reform and restriction of Episcopacy in Scotland, and also
to the trial of the Bishops and others by the Assembly as
ecclesiastical delinquents. He was still to try to keep the
lay element as much as possible out of the Assembly, but
this rather by private management and by infusing into the
minds of the clergy " a jealousy of being overruled by laics."
1 Rushworth, II. 763, 764 ; Spalding, I. 98—100 ; and Baillie, I. 100, 101.
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 31
Iii this matter of the " prelimitation," therefore, the chief
stumbling-blocks had been removed. But there was a re-
maining stumbling-block. Charles could not forget the exist-
ence of the " damnable Covenant " ; and the Marquis, greatly
against his own will this time, was instructed to mingle with
all the new concessions, and all his activity in connexion with
them, an experiment in a new form of that very homoeo-
pathic remedy which he had himself suggested. According
to this new form of the homoeopathic remedy, — concocted,
apparently, by Traquair, Roxburgh, and others of the Scottish
Councillors, — the Scots were to be offered, in lieu of their
Covenant, a document actually the same to a considerable
extent, and differing only in its closing portion. So far as
the repetition of the "Short Confession of 1580 " was con-
cerned, the new Covenant to be proposed to the Scots in the
King's name was verbatim the same as their own ; but the
rest of it was to consist of a renewal of a particular Bond or
Covenant against Papists which had been annexed to the
Short Confession in special circumstances by King James
and his Council in 1590* Let us see what were some of the
items in this proposed compound document. The Short
Confession of 1580 is a vow of abhorrence of "all kind
of Papistry in general and particular heads " ; among which
heads are enumerated the following errors and usurpations of
the Pope : " his canonization of men, calling upon angels or
" saints departed, worshipping of imagery, relics, and crosses,
" dedicating of kirks, altars and days." as well as " his holy
" water, baptizing of bells, conjuring of spirits, crossing, sain-
" ing, anointing, hallowing of God's creatures." In the Bond
of 15 90, annexed to this Confession in the King's Covenant,
there was less of this kind of language, and one can see why
the King should prefer it to the Bond in the real Covenant,
which was a solemn league of mutual defence against tin
" innovations " that had been enforced in his own reign and
by himself. But, though preferable on this account, it was
st i < .11^ enough in itself. It was an oath to assemble in arms,
when required by the King, "against whatsoever foreign or
" intestine powers, or Papists and their partakers, should arrive
32 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" or rise within this island or any part thereof," and also, under
the same authority, to put the laws in force against " all
Jesuits and seminary or mass priests." To what straits must
the husband of Henrietta Maria, and the ecclesiastical disciple
of Laud, have been driven when he was induced to sanction
such a document as this joint Confession of 1580 and Bond
of 1590 I1
Great was the popular rejoicing when, on Thursday the
22nd of September, the full tenor of his Majesty's concessions
was made known in several definite proclamations by the
royal heralds at the Cross of Edinburgh. One proclamation
was of a general or declaratory nature, absolutely revoking
the Service-Book, the Canons, and the High Commission,
suspending the Perth Articles, and promising their repeal and
a limitation of Episcopacy. Two others were special : one a
summons for a General Assembly of the Kirk to be held at
Glasgow (not at Aberdeen, as had been feared) on the 21st of
November ; and another for a Parliament to meet in Edin-
burgh on the ensuing 15th of May. What could heart wish
for more ? Alas ! there was one vitiating accompaniment of
all this joy. " Only one thing frays us," writes Baillie, — " the
subscription of ane other covenant." * Before issuing the
happy proclamations, the Marquis, in accordance with his
instructions, had brought the matter of the new Covenant
before the Council and some of the Covenanting chiefs. To
these latter it caused perplexity. To the document in itself
there was no objection ; it was a very excellent document,
such as they would have been glad to sign then or at any
time ; but, considered as a document which they were to
accept from the King to the cancelling and renunciation of
their own Covenant so solemnly sworn to, or even as a sub-
stitute for that Covenant, it assumed a very different com-
plexion. Even the Lords of the Council felt this peculiarity
of the case ; and, though all of them who were present, to the
number of twenty-nine, complied with the Marquis's request
1 Rushworth, II. 759 — 761 (second venson's Introd. to his History, under
paging) ; and Stevenson, 252, 253. The the year 1590.
whole of the Bond of 1590 may be read 2 Baillie, I. 104.
in Rushworth, II. 778—780, or in Ste-
1638-39.] MARQUIS OF HAMILTON'S MISSION. 33
that they would sign the document along with him, they did
so only with an important explanation, insisted on by Lome.
that tin- ( ..'mi Cession of 1580, as part of the document, was to
be understood in the sense in which it had been originally
drawn up, and as not implying approbation of any changes in
tin doctrine or discipline of the Kirk that had been intro-
duced after that date. For those who, like Lome, had not
signed the other Covenant, this might be satisfactory : they
were free from any former oath, and could take the King's
with pleasure. But for the Covenanters themselves the case
was different. The inducements to compliance were strong
and obvious. Not the least was the sense of the prejudice
that would be sure to arise against their cause in indifferent
or even friendly quarters if they seemed to stand stubbornly
on a mere form of words, when the substance was yielded.
Still, the more they thought of the matter, the less could
they comply. Very soon their minds were made up. On
the 24th of September, or two days after the proclamations
summoning an Assembly and a Parliament, there was a fur-
ther proclamation at the Cross, by the Marquis's order, of
Acts of Council commanding all His Majesty's Scottish sub-
jects of whatever degree to subscribe the King's Covenant in
the sense in which it had just been subscribed by the Council,
and empowering commissioners to go into all the shires and
collect the subscriptions before the 13th of November. No
sooner w?is this proclamation made than Johnstone of War-
ns toil stood forth, in the name of the Tables, and read a
Protest which had been drawn up for the purpose. It was a
long document, but is, I think, both in spirit and in ex-
ion, one of the finest to be found among the uncouth
Scottish records of that period. I can hardly be wrong in
attributing it to Henderson. Was the former oath of a whole
nation, it asked, to go for nothing ? Were men, serious men,
to "multiply oaths and covenants," or to "play with oaths
as children do with their toys ? " In so far as the Covenant
aln-ady -worn to exceeded that now proposed, would there not
be perjury in the substitution ? " What the use is of man h
" stones 14x111 bord.-rs of land," it said, "the likr use have
: IF i'
34 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" Confessions of Faith in the Kirk, to determine betwixt
" truth and error ; and the renewing and applying of Con-
" fessions of Faith to the present errors and corruptions are
" not unlike riding of marches ; and, therefore, to content
" ourselves with the general, and to return to it from the
" particular, application of the Confession necessarily made
" upon the invasion or creeping in of errors within the
" borders of the Kirk, if it be not a removing of the march-
" stone from its own place, it is at least the hiding of the
" march in the ground that it be not seen." l
And now, over the whole country, for about two months,
there was a struggle of the two Covenants. It was not the
question now whether one was a Covenanter or Non-Cove-
nanter, but whether one would remain a Covenanter proper
or be a King's Covenanter. As eager as the Covenanters
had been six months before for the subscription of their
Covenant, so eager were the Marquis and his official adherents
now for the subscription of the rival Covenant in all parishes
and places. Every influence was used with town-councils
and presbyteries. For a time there seemed a chance of suc-
cess. There were groups of Covenanters here and there who
could not see the harm of accepting a Covenant so like their
own, if the compliance would bring peace. Gradually, how-
ever, the counter-arguments of the Tables in their paper of
Protest told on these waverers. Nay, the success of the King's
Covenant in one locality brought it into discredit with the
rest of the nation. It was on the 4th of October that the
Marquis of Huntley, accompanied by his two sons, Lords
Gordon and Aboyne, and by some Aberdeenshire and Banff-
shire lairds, made a grand demonstration with drum and
trumpet for the King's Covenant in the market-square of
Aberdeen, requiring the citizens to subscribe it. The Aber-
deen Doctors led the way with their signatures ; but they did
so with certain characteristic explanations, to the effect that,
in so doing, they were not to be considered as condemning
Episcopal Government, or the Articles of Perth, or as com-
1 See the entire Protestation in Stevenson, 256 — 264, and a portion of it
in Kushworth, II. 772, 773.
1038-39.] MARQUIS <>! HAMILTON'S MISSION.
mittim: themselves to the immutability of the Presbyterian
model as it had existed in 1580. With this interpretation of
the King's Covenant, which in fact converted the signing of
it into a demonstration in behalf of Prelacy, the bulk of the
Aliridonians acquiesced. Their acquiescence was ruinous.
Here was that document, wliich the Privy Councillors them-
selves had signed carefully with one interpretation, signed by
the Aberdonians — and their conduct " well likit " of the
King too — in a sense totally different ! Even the willing
were taught to beware. On the 1st of November, when the
Court of Session met in Edinburgh after the vacation, the
Marquis could induce only nine of the thirteen judges to
sign the new Covenant; and by the 13th, which had been
the day fixed for the final return of the subscriptions, it was
clear that, save among the official portions of society and in
the head-quarters of Scottish Prelacy, the new Covenant was
a failure. What was to be done ? Were the King's pro-
mises of uu Assembly and a Parliament to be retracted ?
Balcanqulwl, in a private correspondence he was carrying on
with Laud, advised something of the kind. The Marquis
himself wrote to the King that there ought to be a vigorous
prosecution of military and naval preparations. Still, on the
whole, it was thought best to let things drift on to the
Assembly according to promise. Whatever the Assembly
did could be disowned when convenient, and meanwhile all
sorts of legal obstructions might be accumulated to impede
the Assembly when it did meet, and to furnish reasons to the
Kinx for declaring its proceedings invalid. For example, an
A.-t n| ill, Scottish Council was to be obtained debarring
tli» Assembly, in the King's name, from the question of the
abolition of Episcopacy, and the Marquis was to refuse his
nit for any summons of the Bishops and other accused
ecclesiastics l>et«»re the Assembly in tin- eharaeter of delin-
quents.1
Aware of all these predeterminations against the Assembly.
but resolved t<> make the best of it, the ( 'n\ maulers had been
•liworth, II. 7SI 7*7: I. HI : l..-tt«-r
•on, 265 ft *•//.; Bnillir, I. 10 1. ,i »v.: jtl A|-iH-n.li.\ t«- K-iilli.-. I. I" 7.
36 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
for weeks busy with all the items of preparation for a national
convention so important and so long disused. Since the
month of August letters of direction had been out from the
Tables in Edinburgh to all the fifty-three Presbyteries, and
even to all the Kirk-Sessions, of the land, giving minute in-
structions as to the proper forms of procedure in the election
of representatives. The Burghs had been reminded of the
ancient practice in the election of the commissioners to be
sent by them. Various doubtful points as to lay-elders, &c.,
had been cleared up for the satisfaction of the curious. Trusty
members of the several Presbyteries had been communicated
with more privately ; and all had been advised to study as
thoroughly as possible the questions that were likely to come
mainly into dispute in the Assembly — De Episcopatu, De Seni-
oribus.De potestate magistrates in rebus ecclesiasticis,De Liturgid
Anglicand, (fee. But how to bring the Bishops and other
ecclesiastical culprits before the bar of the Assembly ? To
this end there was prepared a general form of complaint or
" libel " against the Bishops, in the names of 1 2 noblemen,
32 barons or lairds, 5 ministers, and 6 burgesses, acting for
the whole body of the Covenanters ; which " libel, " with
special charges of immorality, &c., against some of the
Bishops, was transmitted to the Presbyteries within whose
bounds lay the cathedral-seats or residences of the Bishops,
in order that either these Presbyteries might judge the ac-
cused themselves or refer their trial to the Assembly. The
latter course, it is needless to say, was universally adopted.
In all these proceedings there was evidence not only of the
zeal and courage of the Covenanters, but also of an amount
of business-talent to which there was nothing comparable on
the King's side.1
THE GLASGOW ASSEMBLY OF 1638.
On Wednesday the 21st of November 1638 the long-
expected Assembly met in that High Church of Glasgow
which strangers to the city still visit as one of the best remain-
1 Stevenson, 247—252, and 267-8.
1638-39.] 1IIK GLASGOW ASSEMBLY. ' 37
ing specimens of the old Cathedral-architecture of Scotland.
It was an important day for Scotland, and not so unimportant
for England as the scanty references to it now in English
histories might lead one to imagine. Glasgow was not then
the great city it now is, but only a thriving Scottish town of
some 12,000 souls. The bustle in the place was proportionate
to the occasion. All that was influential in Scotland was
ly gathered there. Besides the Marquis as Lord High
Commissioner, all or nearly all the Privy Councillors, and
the actual members of the Assembly, lay and clerical, to the
nuinl)er of 240, there was a great concourse of ministers,
nobles, and lairds, from all parts of the country, some as
appointed " assessors " to the members, and others attracted
by curiosity. The retainers, many of them armed, whom the
chirf nobles had brought with them, swelled the crowd. In
vain the Marquis had sought to prevent so vast and promis-
cuous a gathering, and to keep the city free from a larger
addition to its ordinary population than might be made by
those whose presence was absolutely necessary. It was with
difficulty that the members could force their way through the
crush to their places in the church. The magistrates had
made all the arrangements. On a throne, as representing his
Majesty, sat the Marquis. Immediately beneath and around
him sat the Lords of the Privy Council, to the number of
thirty, of whom six had been specially named by the King
as " assessors " to the Commissioner. In front of the Com-
missioner's throne was a little table for the Moderator and
the Clerk of the Assembly when they should be chosen ;
there was a long table in the middle, from end to end, round
whirh sat the lay-elders who were members of the Assembly,
or assessors to such; and side seats, rising in tiers, were
occupied by the clerical members and their assessors. The
vaults and recesses were filled with spectators of both sexes,
a special place being reserved for the young nobility. Among
the 144 clerical members returned by the 5."> Presbyteries
(tin..- fn nn most, but only two from some) were Henderson,
Dickson, Uaillie, Rutherford, Cant, and others already known
to us, together with such others, then not inconsiderable, as
38 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Adamson, Eamsay, and Bollock of Edinburgh, Bell and
Zachary Boyd of Glasgow, William Guild of Aberdeen,
James Bonar of Maybole, Dalgleish of Cupar, Cunning-
ham of Cumnock, William Livingstone of Lanark, Ker of
Prestonpans, Row of Carnock, and Eobert Blair and John
Livingstone, both recently from Ireland. The lay members
were 9 6 in all (one from most of the Presbyteries, and one at
least from each of the 48 Scottish burghs) ; among whom
were the chief of the Scottish non-official nobility and gentry.
Yes ! though the Scottish aristocracy have since then, almost
to a man, passed over to the English Church, there sat in
that most Presbyterian of all the Assemblies of the Kirk, and
most of them most intensely and patriotically Presbyterian
themselves, the ancestors of most of our present well-known
Scottish families. Among the Earls were Eothes, Lothian,
Cassilis, Eglintoun, Montrose, Wemyss, and Home ; among the
Lords were Cranstoun, Tester, Johnston e, Loudoun, Sinclair,
Balmerino, Lindsay, Burleigh, and Cupar ; and among the
lairds or lesser barons were Douglas of Cavers, Fergusson of
Craigdarroch,Agnew of Lochnaw,Baillie of Lamington, Stirling
of Keir, Graham of Fintray, Piamsay of Balmain, Skene of
Skene, Fraser of Philorth, and Barclay of Towie. Among the
ministers present, not as members, but only as spectators and
assessors, were young George Gillespie of Wemyss, and old
David Calderwood, the long-exiled but now rejoicing his-
torian of the Kirk. There had been an expectation that the
Aberdeen Doctors and their friends would appear and show
fight ; and there had been returns from some Presbyteries of
men of this stamp. On the whole, however, the policy of
the Anti-Covenanters had been to keep away from the As-
sembly, rather than figure as a small fraction in it and yet
countenance it by their presence. In the main, then, the
Assembly, though divisible into the more eager and the less
eager in opinion, as all assemblies are, was charged with one
spirit. For the difficult office of Moderator or President there
was chosen, by instinctive and unanimous consent, Alexander
Henderson, " incomparably the ablest man of us all," says
Baillie, " for all things." As to who should sit at the same
1638-30.] I UK GLASGOW ASSKMULY.
table with the Moderator as Clerk of the Assembly there was
no hesitation whatever. Johnstone of Warriston was the
very man, " a nonsuch for a Clerk to us all," says Baillie.
As Clerk he was not a member of Assembly, but only its
officer.1
Obstruction of the proceedings at every possible point
was the policy of the Marquis. The first seven days of the
Assembly were, accordingly, one continued struggle between
him and the body of the members. His method was to
watch the progress of the business, and, wherever he could
see a controvertible point, to challenge it and raise a debate,—
in the end, when the decision went against him on that point,
suffering the decision to pass under protest. Thus he opposed
the election of Henderson as Moderator, the election of John-
stone as Clerk ; and day after day he kept on demurring,
delaying, and protesting at every new stage, in a way which,
while it vexed the Assembly, impressed them with a respect
for his ability. " I take the man to be," says Baillie, who had
been much prejudiced against him, " of a sharp, ready, solid,
" clear wit, of a brave and masterlike expression, loud, distinct,
" slow, full, yet concise, modest, courtly : if the King have
" many such men, he is a well-served prince." It needed a
Henderson for Moderator, thought Baillie, to match such a
High Commissioner.
But the policy of mere obstruction was to come to an end.
On the sixth and seventh days of sitting — Tuesday the 27th
and Wednesday the 28th of November — there came on a dis-
cussion of certain documents striking at the powers and the
very existence of the Assembly itself. There was a Declinator
in >ni the Bishops, i.e. a paper in which they jointly took ex-
ception to the Assembly, and refused to appear in it or recog-
nise its authority 2 ; and there were three allied documents,
signed in all by about fifty ministers, protesting against the
validity of the Assembly if laymen or commissioners from
such should have votes in it. These last were speedily dis-
1 Minute .11 «>iint# of the arrange- roll of the members, both lay and clo-
\-Muinbly nro tfivun in rical.
Bail Ho and Ktovunwm ; and in Stovon- * Sc« •' • /> !',<,<!>,,• (a l<>n^ douu-
•on (275—277) may be seen a complete mont) in Rush worth, II. 866—87-'.
40 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOliY OF HIS TIME.
posed of, the slenderness of the numerical opposition which
they revealed surprising the Assembly itself. But the De-
clinator of the Bishops ! It was known that, in this matter,
if in any, the Marquis and the Assembly would come to a
rupture, and it was thought of evil omen that at this juncture
of the proceedings the Bishop of Eoss had arrived in Glasgow
from Court. Accordingly, the debate became " complicated
and vehement. There were counter-protests against the De-
clinator from the nobles who had promoted the libel against
the Bishops ; there were speeches by Eothes and other chief
leaders ; there was a speech by the Moderator, expounding
the rights of the Assembly by reference to the Synod of Dort
as a precedent, and in the light of natural reason ; and,
Balcanquhal having obtained leave to comment on one por-
tion of the Moderator's speech, there was protracted argument-
ation in reply. At length, the debate having wearied itself
out, it was left for the Moderator to put the question to the
Assembly " whether they found themselves the Bishops'
judges notwithstanding their Declinator." At this point the
Marquis rose in a warning manner. After speaking of the
conflict of his own feelings in having to discharge a duty so
painful, he declared that the course of the Assembly's pro-
ceedings was now inconsistent with his Majesty's instructions
to him ; and, delivering a paper containing these instructions
to the Clerk, he desired that it should be read. The paper,
among other things, required the Assembly to accept, sign,
and register the King's Covenant. When it had been read,
the Moderator, after a grave and loyal reply, insisted that he
must proceed to his duty and put the question of the Decli-
nator. Again the Marquis interfered, intimating that, if the
question were put, he must leave the Assembly. Very anxious
to prevent such a catastrophe, Eothes addressed his Grace,
and there followed a kind of informal dialogue, in which all
the objections to the proceedings of the Covenanters were
again urged by his Grace, and redargued by Eothes, Loudoun,
and others. While speaking, the Marquis was seen to shed
tears ; and his distress, communicating itself to the Assembly,
" drew water," says Baillie, " from many eyes, — well I wot,
1638-39.] III! i.l.ASGOW ASSEMBLY. 41
much from min. . He summed up with these words: "I
" stand to the King's prerogative as supreme judge over all
" causes, civil and ecclesiastic ; to him the Lords of the Clergy
" have appealed ; iind therefore I will not suffer their cause to
" be farther reasoned here." He would have had the Assembly
thru t«> luvak up; but, as they would not, he protested, in
the King's name ami in his own, against whatever they might
do, and left the church with his retinue of Privy Councillors.
One Privy Councillor, indeed, remained behind. This was
Lome, — now no longer called by that name, however ; for, by
his father's death in London, he had just become Earl of
Argyle. He had taken the opportunity, during the last con-
versation, to explain, in the Marquis's presence, his past
conduct, to call attention to the fact that he had signed the
King's Covenant in a sense contrary to the Prelatic interpret-
ation that had been given to it, and to signify his intention
thenceforth to adhere to the Assembly as a lawful convocation
of his countrymen. Hurrah for Argyle at last ! From this
time forward he is openly a Covenanter.1
Next day, as was expected, there was a proclamation by
the Marquis, dissolving the Assembly on pain of treason, and
commanding all persons not resident in Glasgow to leave the
city within twenty-four hours. The Assembly, of course, had
their protest ready, and did not move. Only three or four of
them, so far as is known, left their places. Deliberately through
nineteen more sittings they proceeded with their business,
the last or twenty-sixth sitting being on Thursday the 20th
of December. An index of their principal Acts may be read
in Rushworth, and their proceedings may be studied more at
large in the published records of the Kirk of Scotland. Suffice
it here to say that they swept Episcopacy, root and branch,
out of the land, and re-established the Kirk on the Presby-
trrian basis. There was an Act annulling the six imme-
diately preceding Assemblies, from that of Perth in 1618 back
1 Baillir, I. !•_'.; Ill; Stevenson, ivnud I .ctwoon the 9th of October, when
273—308; Ku-h\v..rth, II. 841 — 854. Lome still gigiui himself "Lome," and
Tho exact date of the old Karl of Ar- tho .1th i>f November, when UK
i.-uth i-- n.it in IKJ found in tin,- in ;i K-ttcr to \\Ynt worth, n-furs to him
Peerage- books : but it must have bap- as " Argylo" (Mrittfoi-d Lttlert).
42 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
to that of Linlithgow in 1606, by which Prelacy had been
introduced or accepted. There were Acts condemning the
Service-Book, the Canons, the High Commission, and the
Articles of Perth. There was an Act deposing and excom-
municating " the sometime pretended bishops of St. Andrews,
Glasgow, Koss, Galloway, Brechin, Edinburgh, Dunblane and
Aberdeen," with an Act deposing, but not excommunicating,
the less unpopular bishops of Moray, the Isles, Argyle,
Orkney, Caithness, and Dunkeld. There were Acts ratifying
the National Covenant and disowning the King's Covenant.
There were Acts " restoring Presbyteries and Provincial and
General Assemblies " on their former basis, and redistributing
the fifty-three Presbyteries into convenient provinces for
Synods. There were minor acts about all matters and sundry,
— concerning schools and colleges, against delinquents inferior
to the bishops, against Popery, concerning Sabbath-observance,
against Deans and Chapters, and (alas for toleration in those
days even among the foes of Laud !) against " the printing
anything anent the Assembly, or any treatise concerning the
Kirk," without warrant in writing from the Assembly's Clerk.
Finally, the next meeting of the Assembly was appointed to
be held in Edinburgh in July 1639. In these Acts the
Assembly was singularly unanimous. Argyle, though not as
a member, took part in the deliberations, and remained with
the Assembly till it broke up. Two days before it broke up
it was again denounced and annulled by a royal Proclamation.
This Proclamation, direct from the King, and dated " White-
hall, Dec. 8," had been read at the Cross of Edinburgh, and
met there, as usual, by a detailed protest. The Glasgow
Assembly of 1638 was to remain a solid and accomplished
fact in the history of Scotland. It re-established the Church
of the nation on its Presbyterian foundation ; and its
Moderator, Alexander Henderson, is remembered to this
day as the great successor of John Knox.1
i Rushworth, II. 872—875 ; Acts and Bafflie, I. 144—176 ; Stevenson, 308—
Proceedings of the Assembly of 1638 352.
(reprinted at Edinburgh in 1838);
1838-39.] I IK. ST " BISHOPS* WAR." 43
THE FIRST "BISHOPS' WAR" WITH THE SCOTS.
England had been roused, from end to end, by the events
in Scotland. Till some eighteen months before, English ideas
of Scotland had been very vague. In the descriptions of
English satirists it was a land of beggary and oatmeal,
from which, since the union of the Crowns, there had been
a constant influx of lank and greedy immigrants.
Had Cain been Scotch, God would have changed his doom ;
Not made him wander, but compelled him home.
These lines had yet to be written by the satirist Cleveland ;
but the jest which they express had long been popular in
England. " The truth is," says Clarendon, " there was so
" little curiosity, either in the court or the country, to know
" anything of Scotland, or what was done there, that, when
" the whole nation was solicitous to know what passed weekly
" in Germany and Poland, and all other parts of Europe, no
" man ever inquired what was doing in Scotland, nor had that
" kingdom a place or mention in one page of any gazette."
Jenny Geddes's arm had changed all that. Since the pro-
clamation of the Covenant there had been an intense interest
throughout England in the progress of " the Scottish busi-
ness." The illustrations of this that might be gathered from
the English Home-Office documents of the time are innu-
merable. One reads there how information was sent from
Northumberland to Secretary Windebank that John Alured,
dwelling near the border, and worth 400/. or 500/. a year,
had been heard to say that " the Scots were brave boys,"
and " would reform this land by a Parliament as they had
done theirs already." One reads of a nest of sympathisers
with the Scots in Newcastle, and how from that town a
merchant named Fenwicke, a tanner named Bittlestone, and
others, had paid a visit of sympathy to Edinburgh, had
lodged there in a poor widow's house in the High Street,
had heard Mr. Roque (Rollock) preach on Psalm cxxii. 6, 7,
and had been so greatly impressed that they had either
pied the Covenant themselves or wished to do so. Nor
44 ' LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
was it only in the north of England that such instances
of sympathy with the Scots were breaking out, in a manner
to attract the attention of the local authorities and of the
Home Office. In London, now and for weeks and months
to come, Mr. Secretary Windebank, and his private secretary
and son-in-law, Mr. Robert Reade, were busy to weariness
with informations that had reached them of cases of the
Scottish distemper, and with inquiries and arrests arising
out of those informations. Some of these cases are comical
enough. Lists were made out of Scottish tailors and other
Scottish tradesmen in the City, and of the cheap eating-houses
and the like to which Scotchmen did most resort ; and one
reads, inter alia, how a certain Mrs. Cromwell, living near
Shere Lane, and not only she, but her neighbour Mrs. Grace
Southcott, and the Rev. Mr. Swadling, Vicar of Aldgate's, and
Dr. May, a physician, — all of whom chanced to be in Mrs.
Cromwell's house at the time, — were alarmed by the wild
talk of a certain Captain Napier, a Scotchman, who had dropt
in with apologies from his sick wife for not having been able
to call on Mrs. Cromwell. The news from Scotland having
been mentioned, Captain Napier had told them that there
was more in that matter than people generally knew. " There
were many good heads writing and busy about these things,"
and he himself was not in London for nothing. He has
the honour of seeing the imprisoned Bishop of Lincoln almost
every day in the Tower ; " that Bishop hath more in him
" than all the rest of the Bishops of England, and, if he had
" been made Archbishop of Canterbury, none of all these
" things had fallen out." What was brewing time alone
could tell. Only this he would hint, that "all the apostles
of Christ had not 100/. a year amongst them," and that, if
the Bishops of England were brought back to something like
that state of things, it might be better for all parties ! All
this and much more did Captain Napier say openly in Mrs.
Cromwell's house, till the hair of his hearers stood on end ;
and no sooner was he gone than, Mr. Swadling and Dr. May
having agreed that " many a man hath been laid upon a
hurdle for less matters than this and for concealment," an
1638-39.] Mi:sT " BISHOI'> \v.\l;." 45
account of what had passed was drawn up, read to the women,
and sent to Secretary Windebank. The result was that Cap-
lain Napier soon found himself under lock and key. If the
accounts are correct, we need not pity him much : he was but
a Scottish Bobadil, and had probably a bee in his bonnet —
Hut what shall we say of the daily intercepting of letters
addressed to respectable London citizens, and of police-visits
to their houses to search for papers on suspicion of their com-
plicity with the Scots ? Among the persons so suspected, and
exaiiiiiK'd under warrant from Windebank, was a "Samuel
Haitlib, merchant," of whom we shall hear more in this
History. And the feeling regarding the existence of which
the Government was thus on the alert, did, doubtless, exist
throughout the entire body of the English Puritans. Above
all, for the Hampdens, the Cromwells, and the Pyms, walking
about this time, as we can fancy them, in the fields or along
quirt pathways in their several parts of England, and won-
dering how long the reign of " Thorough " was to last, and
when, if ever, they were to be called upon again to act for
their countrymen, the news from Scotland must have had a
strangely agitating interest.1
1 The little odds and ends of fact these two years post, and it being a
mentioned in this ]>aragraph are from time which threatens great change and
notes of my readings in the MSS. in trouble, I have thought good now to
the State- Paper Office. The date of the salute," &c.— I may hero mention that
A lured case is July 4 — 9; that of the to the fears of complicity with the Scots
N i].;.-r case, August 8 ; the date of the entertained by the Government about
inquiry about the Newcastle sympa- this time wo owe some curious sta-
in January 1638-9. Thence, on tistics as to the number of forrlffiiert
for some months, Windebank and Rcadc then resident in London. From are-
are busy with London cases. The war- turn of names made to Windebank, in
rant for examining I lartlib and search- pursuance of a Privy Council order
i house is of date May 1, 1639. (S. P. 0. MS. of date March 15, 1638-9),
Reade, who had just written on I find that there wore then 838 "stran-
-• vious day (April 30), "I am in gers " in Westminster — viz. 641 French,
•ntinual employment in oxamin- 17ti Dutch, 15 Italians, and 6S{>aniards
ing these Puritan rogues, &c., that I — a largo proportion of whom are
am weary of my life."— I have seen a described as "painters," " picture-
• i'yrn- in the State- Paper Office, drawers," or "lymners," while others
dated "London, July 20, 1638," and are engravers, musicians, silver- workers,
addressed to his "very worthy and &c. Westminster would naturally bo
mm h esteemed friend, John Wandes- the head -quarters of foreigners who
f-T'l. . I'.- His Ma j. agent and counsel wore artists. In the City of London
f.-r th«- Kn/li-h .it A:«-|.|HI in Syria." there were at the same time (MS. of
In this letter (<i«ul>tlcs8 intercepted date March 19, giving, however, only
• ;.'ht to Windobank) Pym says, numbers, and not a list of names) 830
"Being again to go into the country, "strangers," classified thus: French.
I have been for the most i*in 1 >uteh, 221 ; Walloons, 33"
46 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
The nature of this interest of the English Puritans in
the Scottish struggle may be easily conceived. From the
time of Elizabeth, it is true, a large proportion of those who
were called Puritans in England had desired nothing more in
the shape of ecclesiastical change than a modification of the
Episcopal power, an abatement of ceremonies, and the like ;
but, in so far as any other model of a Church than the Epis-
copal had been contemplated by those English Puritans who
stopped short of Independency and Separatism, it had, of
course, been the Genevan or Presbyterian. Most probably
the tightening and heightening of English Episcopacy by
Laud had of late driven the thoughts of the Puritans more
and more to this notion of a Church without bishops as pro-
mising the only effective deliverance. Such a notion, how-
ever, can have existed but vaguely while it was only by look-
ing across the seas to Holland and Switzerland that actual
specimens of non - episcopal Church -government could be
found. But, now that one portion of the British Island itself
had actually swept away its bishops and reverted to the
Presbyterian system, it was not wonderful that Presby-
terianism should seem to the English Puritans a nearer
possibility than it had been. All of them indeed did not as
yet go the length of desiring the Presbyterian system for
England. But all of them were satisfied that, if the Scots
chose to have that system in Scotland, they ought not to be
prevented by any interference from without ; and they were
shocked at the idea of a war between the two nations for the
sake of the Scottish bishops.
Nevertheless, war there was now to be. On this the King,
Laud, Wentworth, Arundel, Cottington and others were re-
solved. Nor could any of the Councillors see how it could
be longer avoided. The Marquis of Hamilton, who had been
detained by illness and disappointment in Scotland till the
month of January, could give no other advice. Accordingly,
as preparations had been going on more or less secretly for
mans, 24 ; Italians, 11 ; Polanders, 2 ; burghers, 1. As regards professions,
Bohemians, 1 ; Norwegians, 1 ; Sa- 202 of the total 830 are described as
voyards, 1 ; Normans, 1 ; Florentines, 1 ; "weavers," and the rest as of other
Palatinate-men, 1 ; Venetians, 6 ; Ham- professions.
1638-39.] FIRST " BISHOPS* WAR." 47
months, with a view to a war in the spring at any rate, so
during the months of January and February 1638-9 these
preparations were pressed forward with all the urgency of
immediate haste. The details of these preparations the
reader may easily conceive for himself. We will but glance
at one or two of the special methods for raising money to
which the King had recourse.
The Nobles were called upon to subscribe. By a circular
Irttri in the King's name to all the English nobility, dated
" Westminster, January 26, 1638-9," they were individually
informed that the King was to lead in person an expedition
against the Scots, and that the rendezvous was to be at York
on the 1st of April; and they were required to intimate within
fifteen days to one of the Secretaries of State the nature and
the extent of the assistance which his Majesty might expect
from them on that occasion. A good many replies to this
letter, some of which are curious specimens of aristocratic
penmanship and orthography, are still to be seen in the State-
Paper Office ; where also there is an abstract, in the hand-
writing of Mr. Nicholas, Clerk to the Council, of all the replies
sent in, to the number of seventy-seven. The gradations of
wealth among the English nobles, in combination with their
zeal and loyalty in general, or with their appetite for the
Scottish war in particular, are easily to be seen in this docu-
ment. None of the seventy-seven nobles included in it conies
up to Wentworth. His name is not included in it, apparently
because it was necessary that he should remain in Ireland ;
but, hearing that such a summons had gone forth, he had
written over to the King, subscribing 20 OO/., and asking his
Majesty to command all he had beyond that, " to the utter-
in- >st farthin Perhaps next in zeal to Wentworth is the
Karl of Worcester. He promises 1000/., and will send his
son and heir (Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Glamorgan) to
the rendezvous with 20 horse. A few nobles, — e.g. Lord
< taring, Lord Cottington, the Earl of Suffolk, the Earl of New-
castle, and the Earl of St. Alban's and Clanricarde, — promise
20 horse, and attendance in person or by substitute; while
others, — ,.</. ihr Kin-Is Mt'Tliain't, Kingston, and L'ivers, — offer
48 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
1 0 0 01., in lieu of horse, or of both horse and attendance. The
Earl of Bridgewater; Milton's " Earl " in Comus, will furnish
12 foot for six months, or pay 1000/., whichever is most ac-
ceptable to the King ; and the money proves most acceptable.
Lord Falconbridge will attend with 1 0 horse and 2 0 foot " at
the least." There are smaller offerings from many, of 500^.
or 600/., or of 4 horse, 6 horse, 10 horse, with or without
personal at ten dance; and a very considerable number, — among
whom are the Marquis of Winchester, and the Earls of
Dover, Danby, Northampton, Northumberland, Westmoreland,
Hertford, Denbigh, Berkshire, Bolingbroke,and Clare, — do not
commit themselves to any exact contribution, but promise to
attend " with as good equipage as their fortunes and the
shortness of the time will permit." Not a few beg to be
excused altogether : from attendance, on the grounds of ill-
health, old age, or important engagements ; and from contri-
bution, on account of poverty or the suddenness of the demand.
Among these are the Earls of Lincoln, Sussex, and Notting-
ham. Some of the replies in this category are peculiar. Lord
Charles Stanhope, for example, " is not able to subsist since
he lost his place but by his Majesty's help " ; but, if he were
paid his arrears of 1400/. or 1500/., he might be able to do
something. Similarly, the philosophical Lord Herbert of
Cherbury reminds Windebank that since 1624 he has been
waiting in vain for repayment of 5,5 OO/. disbursed by him
while he was ambassador in France, and that moreover he has
been more in the cold shade of late than a person of his
merits, both literary and diplomatic, might have expected.
The Earl of Bristol, who had greater cause of complaint
against Charles, sends no distinct reply, but hopes to come to
London soon with " such an answer as may be expected."
Lord Mandeville, son of the Earl of Manchester, " hopes his
father will furnish him " with the means to serve. The Earl
of Warwick, " being to go to the West Indies, desires to be
excused from his personal attendance," but will send his son.
The Earl of Bedford first offers 500J., and then, seemingly
with reluctance, raises the sum to 1000/., with a promise of
personal attendance. In his case, as in some of the preceding.
1638-39.] MUST "BISHOPS' WAR." 49
the struggle between loyalty and Puritan sympathies is appa-
rent; but there are only two cases in which the reluct ;tn< «•
which so many must have felt is openly avowed and assist-
ance refused on principle. The noblemen thus courageously
conspicuous are the two future Puritan leaders, Lord Saye and
Sele and Lord Brooke. In their first letters both " apprehend
that the subject is not obliged to any aid of that nature but
by Parliament " ; and, when they are asked to reconsider that
answer, all they concede is that they will be ready " to attend
his Majesty when any part of the kingdom of England shall
be invaded." They will do what the law requires them to do,
and only that ! 1
From no class of the community was there a larger propor-
tionate contribution than from the Clergy. It was natural
that among many of them ecclesiastical enthusiasm should
prompt to a pecuniary demonstration against Jack Presbyter ;
and those of them who owned no such feeling were under a
very strong whip. Laud had taken the matter in hand. A
circular letter, dated " Lambeth, Feb. 1 1 ," had been sent to all
the clergy of his Province, requiring them to meet and con-
tribute, instructing them that his Majesty looked for " a greater
sum than in the ordinary way," and intimating that every
clergyman's subscription would be registered, and defaulters
would be noted. Archbishop Neile extended the letter to his
Province of York. The result was a most respectable contribu-
tion, satisfactory even to Laud.2 That prelate was, indeed,
now overburdened with the anxiety of an ecclesiastical revolu-
tion roused by himself, and for which he knew that he was
held responsibla As usual, his waking thoughts passed into
his dreams. " Tuesday Night, Feb. 1 2, 1 6 3 9 ," he writes in his
Diary, " I dreamed that K. C. [King Charles] was to be
" married to a minister's widow, and that I was called upon
" to do it : no Service- Book was to be found ; and in my own
i Tli- ••• ular letter in Rush- Cherbury's, which is in a neat and ele-
wortli. II. 791-2; "A List of the gant hand, »>eintf dated "From my
Lords Answerers to the King's Letter " house at Haquenay, 9 Feb. 1638 " ; also
<>., ,,f ,|;ite Feb. 28, 1638-9; a Wontwrth's letter t.. the- King in
xi many of the answers themselves . date Feb. 10, 1638-9.
the a P. 0.,-Lord II * Runhw..rth, II. 819.
VOL. II E
50 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" book, which I had, I could not find the place for marriage."
This was ominous.
From the laity generally, and from the commercial class in
particular, far less was to be obtained than from the nobles
and the clergy. All that the City of London offered was a
paltry sum of 5,200/.; which his Majesty refused with scorn.1
Hence an application to the English Eoman Catholics. The
Queen herself appealed by letter to her fellow-religionists ; a
central committee of influential Eomanists, including Sir
Kenelm Digby and Walter Montague, was formed in London ;
and in all the shires Eoman Catholic collectors were set to
work. The sum raised was considerable, and would have been
greater had not hints come from Eome, through George Con
and other Papal agents, not to be too forward in the affair.
It was not so clear at the Vatican that the interests of the
true Church would be promoted by helping the King of the
Protestant Island to put down a portion of his subjects a
little more absurdly Protestant than himself ; and the English
Catholics were warned to " desist from that foolish, nay
rather illiterate and childish, custom " of distinguishing be-
tween Anglicanism and Puritanism, as if the one were a
whit nearer the eternal Italian truth than the other.2
The total levies ordered from all England and Wales were
43,153 foot and 3,599 horse. Of this force a part was to
remain in reserve within England, while the rest was to form
the army destined for the Scottish border. To the chief
command of this army the King had appointed the Earl of
Arundel and Surrey, then in his forty-eighth year. He was
chosen for his high rank and general stateliness, and also
perhaps because his ancestor had commanded the English
at Flodden. As Lieutenant -General under Arundel, there
had been appointed Eobert Devereux, Earl of Essex, of about
the same age as Arundel, but of military experience, and,
according to Clarendon, " the most popular man in the king-
dom," and the likeliest to be of use to Charles, if Charles
1 Letter of Garrard of the Charter- Papers in the State Paper Office,
house, of date March 28, 1639, to 2 Rushworth, II. 820—826.
Viscount Conway, among the Conway
1638-39.] FIRST "BISHOPS* WAR." 51
had possessed due discernment Essex would have preferred
Master of the Horse ; but, by the Queen's influence,
that post was given to the Earl of Holland. To assist the
land-operations of the army, a fleet of sixteen vessels, under
the command of the Marquis of Hamilton, with Admiral Sir
John Pennington as his second, was to sail from the Thames
for the Firth of Forth. The scheme of a descent by the Earl
of Antrim and his Irish followers on the west or Argyleshire
coast was revived, and it was hoped that Wentworth might
aid or follow up that expedition. Finally, to turn to account
the anti-covenanting elements in Scotland, a commission was
sent to the Marquis of Huntley, appointing him Lieutenant
for the King at Aberdeen and in all the northern parts of
Scotland.1
It was not till the King's preparations were in a sufficient
state of forwardness that he openly announced to his English
subjects the intention which they had gathered from his acts.
This was done in a long proclamation, of date February 27,
ordered to be read in all the parish churches of England and
Wales after Divine service. Here his Majesty gave such a
summary account of the proceedings of the Scots as would,
he said, make evident, in the meantime, the justice of his
intended war, but referred those who might desire to study
the question more at leisure to an elaborate documentary
history which Dr. Balcanquhal was preparing for the press
under the title of " The Large Declaration." In the pro-
clamation very strong statements were made. The Cove-
nanters were accused of being enemies to monarchy, and of
a design to invade England.2 As the Scots had circulated
abundantly in England papers giving a very different version
of their acts and their principles, the proclamation of Charles
had little effect; and the popular English feeling against
tin- war broke out in all sorts of forms. Squibs, and drafts
of petitions against the war, \\viv Hung at night over the
walls of Whitehall or Lambeth, or dropped within the pre-
» Riwhworth, II. 826 — 828 ; Claren- / Ifciillie, 1. 188 jSpaldii.^ I. 1 If..
p. 46; Letter of Northumberland * See the Proclamation inKiuthwortli,
rth, Jan. 29, in atra/ord II. 830—833.
52 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
cincts of the Court. Take as a specimen one rude and very
plebeian document, now in the State Paper Office, written
in a coarse, cramped hand, and endorsed by Windebank
" Libel from Ware." Ware is a village in Herts, and some
rustic Puritan there had penned the document. "If you
" tender God's glory," he says to the King, " your Highness'
" and posterity's good and your loving subjects' love, con-
" sider what you do before you begin to shed innocent blood.
" King Ahab brought a curse on all his posterity by," &c.
Again, " We, your poor yet true subjects have many griev-
" ances which lieth heavy on our bodies and our states, which
" we cannot well bear; yet our greatest cause of grief is
" that God's ordinances are taken away, and our ministers
" are taken away or their mouths stopped, and our souls are
" like to be starved ; and we have as much need to stand as
" the Scots have in this behalf." After more of the same
sort, the petition winds up with this bit of doggerel —
" Desierin' your Hines to pardon my pen,
Gary Laud to the Scots, and hang up ' Ren." 1
While the King was making his preparations, the Scots
had not been idle. Foreseeing war, they had, even before the
holding of their Assembly, taken care to provide what was
mainly needful, — a fit commander -in -chief. The " Thirty
Years' War," then two-thirds over, had been a grand military
school, not only for Germans, Swedes, Frenchmen, and other
continentals, but also for many a volunteer or soldier -
adventurer from the British Islands. In especial, scores
of cadets of Lowland Scottish families had gone abroad
since 1618 in the Protestant service, and had become officers
in the armies of the Elector-Palatine, the Danish King, and
Gustavus Adolphus. Among the most conspicuous of these
was Alexander Leslie, a natural son of George Leslie,
captain of Blair in Athole, one of that wide-spread Scottish
family of Leslies of which the Earl of Eothes was now the
copy in my notes from Papers The '"Ken" whose hanging-up is de-
'. 0. This paper is addressed sired is Bishop Wren of Norwich,
1 From COT
in the S. P.
on the back ' ' To the Hie and Mighty specially unpopular for his severity
King Charles deliver this carefully." against the Puritans.
1638-39.] FIRST " BISHOPS' WAR." 53
chief. He had served as an officer in Sir Horatio
Vere's regiment of British auxiliaries sent to assist the
Dutch against Spinola, and had passed thence into the
service of Gustavus. Among his military exploits when
he was one of Gustavus's Scottish officers had been the
defence of Stralsund in 1628 against the Imperialists under
Wallenstein. The success of this defence, in spite of Wal-
lenstein's boast that he would take Stralsund " though it
were chained to heaven by adamant," had been accounted a
splendid incident of the general war. Thenceforward, as
Sir Alexander Leslie, Governor of Stralsund, Field-marshal,
&c., he had been one of the Swedish hero's most trusted sub-
ordinates ; and, after the death of Gustavus, he had remained
in the Swedish service, — now in Saxony or other parts of
Germany, and now in Sweden itself. Early in 1638 he
seems to have had thoughts of returning to Scotland, where
since 1635 he had been the holder of some property in
Fifeshire. Whatever intention of this kind he may have
had was confirmed by the intelligence he received abroad of
the events of that year in Scotland His sympathies being
with the Covenanters, he had even busied himself with pro-
curing signatures to the Covenant among the Scottish officers
and soldiers in Sweden and Germany. To him, at all events,
the thoughts of the Covenanting leaders at home had turned.
Rothes had entered into communication with him ; and,
coming over in a small bark, he had arrived in Scotland in
the autumn of 1638. Without any post as yet, and indeed
keeping as much as possible in the background, he was
yet to be seen occasionally in the Canongate or in the High
Street of Edinburgh when the Covenanting chiefs were in
consultation. He was a little, crooked, and rather battered
military veteran, at whom people pointed as he passed, telling
each other that that was General Leslie.1
There was little necessity now for Leslie's keeping in the
> Records of the Family of Leslie, by Baillio, p. zxxix.; Snalding, I. 130;
Colonel Leslie (1869), III. 355, 356; Harto's dustavus Adolphua (wlit. 1807),
Chambera'8 Dictionary of Eminent I. 163.— Also Th, Melville* «/.// //»
Scotsmen ; Baillio, I. Ill and 213, and Leiliet, by Sir William Eraser (1890),
note by Mr. Laing to his memoir of I. 387—392.
54 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
background. The Scots, indeed, did, after their Assembly,
endeavour to avert war by further messages and " supplica-
tions " ; and, when these had been of no avail, they had been
further troubled by the inopportune appearance here and
there among themselves of doctrinaire hesitations as to the
legality of war by subjects against their sovereign. But common
sense and the powerful pen of Henderson had quashed these
hesitations ; and even before the King's proclamation to the
English of his intended expedition Scotland was alive to meet
it. Thus, as early as January 1 2, Wentworth, writing to Laud
from Dublin, and sending him certain informations which he
had just received from an Ensign Willoughby, who had been
several months in Scotland, nominally on a visit to relatives,
but really as a spy, says : " He tells me that a few days before
" his coming thence there was brought to Leith forth of Sweden,
" in two ships, culvering and demiculvering 6, drakes taper-
" bore 9 (all of brass and upon their carriages ready to march),
" of corslets 4,000, and of muskets 1,800, as good as ever he
" looked on. He tells me he never saw a country so stored
" with arms in all his life, howbeit very much of them refuse
" stuff and unserviceable. They have drill-masters, as they
" term them, which go up and down the country, exercising
" their men." This was but the beginning ; and we hear from
other quarters of committees in every shire, of voluntary sub-
scriptions, of money borrowed from Mr. William Dick of
Edinburgh on the joint-bond of the nobles, of the importation
of iron and the manufacture of arms, and of the arrangement
of a system of beacon-fires along the coasts. Every fourth
grown man in every parish, if necessary, was to take the
field. All this, so far as not done by spontaneous zeal in the
different districts, was done under the authority of a kind of
Central Council which had established itself in Edinburgh,
as a new edition of the Tables adapted to the warlike emer-
gency by the omission of the clerical element. This Council,
or temporary Government of Scotland, consisted, till the 7th of
March, of a large assembly of deputies from all parts of the
country ; but, after that date, of a select committee of twenty-
six nobles, lairds, and burgesses, of whom thirteen were to be
1638-39.] FIRST "BISHOPS' WAR." 55
a quorum. It must be understood also that, influenced by
the example of Argyle, or by a patriotic rousing of spirit
against a threatened invasion, some of those who, as Privy
Councillors of the King, had hitherto stood aloof, now joined
the Covenant Among these were the Earls of Marischal,
Mar, and Kinghorn, and Viscount Almont. Some of the
younger nobility, also, whose fathers held by the King, were
eager now on the other side. Above all, the little crooked
Field-marshal Leslie was now in request. Went worth, who
had heard of Leslie and his activity, writes about him in a
way which at least shows how much he thought would
depend on the kind of commander the Scots had got. The
English, he said, were certainly ill provided with military
men ; but, as far as he could hear, this Leslie was " no such
great kill-cow as they would have him." He could " neither
write nor read," and moreover, though certainly a captain,
he had never really been a general to the King of the Swedes,
but only to a Hanse town, or something of that sort ! All
this, or most of it, was but current English scandal. Having
seen the signature " A. Leslie " in contemporary documents,
I can certify that the veteran not only could write, but wrote
a neat and picturesque hand. In other respects he well
suited his countrymen ; and, while Weutworth was writing,
he was doing what he could to impart to the levies he was
to command some elements of Swedish discipline. He had
his competent assistants in other Gustavus-Adolphus Scots
whom he had taken care to bring over. " Crowner " (i.e.
Colonel) William Baillie was to be his Lieutenant-general ;
Crowner Monro was drilling the Lothians ; and Crowner
Alexander Hamilton had set up a foundry of cannon in the
Potter-row.1
i Baillie, I. 189 — 194; Stevenson, Leslie's defective education has come
360—363 ; Stratford Letters, under date down elsewhere than in the Stratford
cited ; MSS. in 8. P. 0. One particular Letters. It figures even in Colonel
MS. I have in view in my statement Leslie of Balquhain's Historical Records
Ixjslie's signature is a letter, of of the Family of Leslie, where (III. 867)
date Sept. 8, 1640, addressed by Leslie, there is a quotation from Lord HaiK-s,
Rothos, Montrose, and five other Cove- commenting on Leslie's signature to a
nantinu' chiufs, to the Lord Mayor and famous public letter <>f tin? year 1639
Al.l.rrnon of London. I ought to men- in these terms, "Tin: subscription <-f
lion. lu>wuvur, that the tradition as to General Leslie is so awkward and mis-
56 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
When the Scots should march to meet the King, there must
be no impediments left in their rear. Hence, towards the end
of March, the simultaneous seizing or securing by stratagem,
or by an easy show of force without bloodshed, of such castles
as were or might be held for the King, — Edinburgh Castle,
Dalkeith Palace, Stirling Castle, Dumbarton Castle, and all
the border strongholds except Caerlaverock. Argyle himself,
going to the Isle of Arran, took the Marquis of Hamilton's
castle of Brodick, and otherwise settled that western region
against the dreaded invasion of Antrim's Irish. There was
harder work in Aberdeenshire, where the Marquis of Huntley
was doing his best for the King. But, a force of 9,000 Cove-
nanters having marched from the more southern shires, under
the Earls of Montrose, Marischal and Kinghorn, and Leslie
following with a siege-train, and some 2,000 Covenanting
Eorbeses, Erasers, &c., having at the same time risen in
Aberdeenshire itself, Huntley was obliged to flee from Aber-
deen to his own estates in Strathbogie (March 25), leaving
the city to the mercy of the foe. Then was a sore sight
in the town. " Some," says the local historian Spalding,
" fled with their wives and bairns ; among others, there
" fled to sea about sixty of our bravest men and youths of
" Aberdeen, well armed with sword, musket and bandelier,
" as excellent cavaliers. They took one of the town's colours,
" and John Park, their drummer, with them, and resolved to
" go to the King." In the same ship went most of the Aber-
deen Doctors, and the Lairds of Drum and Pitfoddels. They
had hardly departed when the invading force of 11,000
Covenanters, all wearing the blue ribbon of the Covenant
in opposition to the red ribbon of Huntley's adherents,
entered and surrounded the town, to take vengeance upon
its remaining citizens by fines, a stringent imposition of the
shapen that it confirms the tradition of copy of it. On referring to that copy
his being absolutely illiterate." lean- I see that the letters are peculiarly
not account for this discrepancy, and shaped ; but the peculiarity is certainly
Lord Hailes is an unusually strict au- not that of defective education. It is
thority ; but I rather fancy I am right. as if Leslie had practised a square dis-
I took particular note of Leslie's signa- tinct hand while abroad. I adhere to
ture, precisely because it contradicted the words "neat and picturesque."
the tradition ; and I have a kind of
1638-39.] FIRST "BISHOPS' WAK." 57
Covenant, and various other harsh measures. The Marquis
of Huntley himself, pursued into Strathbogie, and obliged to
surrender, was sent to Edinburgh, with his eldest son, Lord
Gordon, where they were imprisoned in the Castla Viscount
Aboyne, the Marquis's second son, and some others of the
family, contrived, however, to remain at large in Aberdeen-
shire ; so that, after the Covenanting force had withdrawn,
leaving only a garrison in Aberdeen, that region continued to
be disturbed. It was in that far-off region, indeed, that there
was the first actual bloodshed in the long Civil War of Great
Britain which was now beginning. As far as can be ascer-
tained, the first person actually slain in the war was a poor
fellow named David Pratt, a farm-servant of the Aberdeen-
shire family of the Gordons of Gicht, the maternal ancestors
of Lord Byron. They were Anti-Covenanters, and he was
shot dead in a chance skirmish with some of the other side
at a place called Towie, some eight-and-twenty miles from
Aberdeen. Skirmishes in those unpoliced parts, now that
there was so good a pretext for them, were the easiest
things in nature, and added to the rough fun of exist-
ence. One such skirmish, a day or two after David Pratt
fell, was on a considerable scale and attained to the dignity
of a name. A number of the known Covenanting lairds
of the district, with Lord Fraser and the Master of Forbes
at their head, having announced that they would hold a
demonstration for the Covenant at Turriff, a small town
on the steep bank of the river Deveron, where it divides
Aberdeenshire from Banffshire, and having assembled with
their retainers to the number of 1200 men, were attacked
there by an equal force of the opposite party, who had
brought field-pieces for the purpose. After some resistance,
the Covenanters fled, the alacrity of their retreating move-
ments being assisted both by the steepness of the braes and
by the shots from the field-pieces. This " Trot of Turriff,"
as it came to be called (May 14, 1639), though a laugh-
able affair in itself, is rather memorable as the first field-
action of the Civil War. In the present, or first Scottish,
stage of that war, at all events, neither Arundel's army
58 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
nor Hamilton's fleet was to do anything for the King half
so good.1
Both army and fleet were by this time ready, and almost
in station, for service. Through the months of March and
April the levies from all parts of England and Wales had
been on the march along the roads, drawing to their rendez-
vous in the north. But never had an English army been on
march on a business for which it had less heart, and never
along the roads and through the villages of England had an
army been seen marching with less pleasure by the people
from which it had been drawn. It had been ordered that
there should be prayers in all the English churches for the
King's success, but the responses can have been but faint.
In the ranks of the army the signs of reluctance were
manifest. " I found some of these trained soldiers/' writes
the Earl of Lindsey, who had a command in it, to Secretary
Windebank, April 9, " very unwilling to go along, so as at
" Boston a woman presented me with the great toe of her
" husband in a handkerchief, which he had cut off that he
" might not be able to march." 2 March, however, they
must. The King was already before them. Leaving London
on the 2 7 th of March, he had reached York on the 3 0 th. Here
he remained a full month, holding Court, receiving local depu-
tations and the Lords and courtiers whom he had summoned
to meet him there, and administering to them the military
oath. Lords Saye and Sele and Brooke, who had attended
the summons, but who had refused the oath, were committed
to custody. Proclamations also were sent into Scotland, with
offers of pardon to those who should submit. After these
preliminaries at York, the King moved on (April 29) to
Durham, and thence to Newcastle. The plan was that
he should remain at Newcastle till Hamilton's fleet from the
Thames had passed the coast of Berwickshire, and begun
operations. When these operations had some success,
the army was to advance to the border, and either invade
Scotland, or give battle to any Scottish army that might bar
1 Baillie, I. 195 et seq. ; Eushworth, Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scot-
Ill. 906—908 ; Spalding, I. 149 et seq. ; land, II. 123-4. 2 MS. letter in S.P.O.
1638-39.] MUST « UISHOPS' WAR." 59
the way. Hamilton's fleet passed the Berwickshire coast on
the 2nd of May, and the King at Newcastle awaited the
result with some anxiety.1
The result was next to nothing. Had Hamilton's fleet
sailed from the Thames a month or six weeks earlier, so as to
have gone to Aberdeen while yet the Marquis of Huntley held
that town and its neighbourhood for the King, something
might have been done. But, the Covenanters having secured
Aberdeen and taken Huntley prisoner, this plan had neces-
sarily been abandoned ; and the fleet had to confine itself to
demonstrations in the Firth of Forth. They were only
demonstrations. To the messages sent ashore to the magis-
trates of Leith, and to the Council of Covenanting chiefs
at Edinburgh, requiring them to receive the Marquis as
King's Commissioner and submit to him, the answer was
very respectfully in the negative. They let him cruise about,
and they even refrained from trying Colonel Hamilton's
" fireworks " upon his ships ; but they were resolved not to
permit a landing. Such messengers of his as they allowed
to come on shore were guarded through the streets of Leith,
and not lost sight of so long as they remained ; parties sent
ashore in boats at any point for fresh water were met by
armed opponents breast-deep, and turned back ; among hun-
dreds of volunteer hands busy in strengthening the fortifi-
cations of Leith and the approaches to Edinburgh were some
" ladies and gentlemen " of both towns, " carrying earth
and stones," and " refusing no labour " ; and conspicuous
among these was Hamilton's own mother, the Marchioness-
Dowager. She went about, it is said, " armed with a pistol,
which she vowed to discharge upon her own son, if he offered
to come on shore." 2 All that the Marquis could do, in these
circumstances, was to cruise about, capturing a trading vessel
or two, till his men, cooped up on shipboard, or on the two
si null islands of Inchcolm and Inchkeith, began to die of
smallpox. A chance, indeed, occurred to him, if he had been
i8palding,I.180;Ru*hworth,III.930. in* Hamilton on board his ship, the
MS. letters in S. P. O.— one of Hni'iilm* ; tho other of date May 9, to
date May 7. t<> Win. 1, -hank iii London, Windchank, from l-Mw.ml Norgate, in
from M. do Vie. a political agent attend- attendance on tho King at Newcastle.
60 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
quick enough to avail himself of it. The heroes of the
" Trot of Tux-riff/' dashing to Aberdeen immediately after that
exploit, and joined by Lord Lewis Gordon, the third son of
the Marquis of Huntley, repossessed themselves of that town,
all the more easily because of the incorrigible royalist tend-
encies of the inhabitants and the smallness of the defence
which the Covenanters had left. As Viscount Aboyne, Hunt-
ley's second son, had gone to the King at Newcastle, and was
expected to return with the commission of King's Lieutenant
in the north in his father's place, it is possible that, if
Hamilton's fleet had left the Firth of Forth for Aberdeen
even as late as the middle of May, that town might
have been turned to account. But the chance was lost.
The Earls of Montrose and Marischal, speeding back to
Aberdeen with some 5,000 Covenanters, so alarmed Lewis
Gordon and the heroes of the " Trot of TurrifF " that they
fled, leaving the unfortunate town for a second and most
severe punishment by the wearers of the blue ribbon (May
25). In especial, as the ladies of Aberdeen had, out of con-
tempt of the Covenant, tied its colours round the necks of
their dogs, there was a great slaughter of the dogs of the town.
While the King remained at Newcastle and Hamilton's
fleet was in the Firth of Forth, the Scots, still anxious to
avoid open war, made their last efforts for peace. Letters
were addressed to Hamilton, as their countryman, requesting
his mediation with the King ; letters of similar purpose were
sent to the Earl of Essex, whose character for liberality and
fairness stood as high with the Scots as with the English ;
nay, the services of messengers and mediators of a humbler
rank were gladly used. There was, for example, a certain
Dr. Moysley, Vicar of Newark, who, taking an interest in
the Scottish movement and wishing to observe matters with
his own eyes, had gone into Scotland on a tour of curiosity.
He had been going about for some weeks, and had seen a
good deal of the Scottish clerical leaders, who found him a
good, simple, candid kind of man, and by no means " Canter-
burian " in his views. He, on the other hand, found them
and their cause by no means so bad as had been represented,
1638-39.] riRST "BISHOPS* WAR." 61
and professed that, though he had no commission, yet, as an
English clergyman, he would consider it his duty, on his
return to England, " to give the King better information "
about them. To this good-natured Vicar, accordingly, leaving
Edinburgh for Newcastle on the llth of May, there was
entrusted a " supplication " to the King, drawn up by Hen-
derson in very " submiss " terms, together with letters in " a
stouter style," drawn up by Argyle, to the Earls of Pembroke
and Holland. And the Vicar was as good as his word. He
had reached Newcastle and delivered his letters before the
17th of May; on which day I find Mr. Edward Norgate,
clerk or secretary to Mr. Secretary Coke, writing as follows
from Newcastle to Robert Reade, holding the same office to
Secretary Windebank in London : " I met with Dr. Moysley,
" Vicar of Newark, who seems a grave and well-spoken
" divine. This doctor tells me, and will make it good with
" the loss of his vicarage, that, during his fortnight's stay in
" Edinburgh, he never heard word from any Scot savouring
" of disaffection to our King or nation." As Norgate, like
his master, Mr. Secretary Coke, was no friend to the war, he
was pleased to hear such a report ; but he could not help
twitting the Doctor a little. " Seeing the Doctor," he says,
" in a very formal and canonical priest's coat, I asked him if
" he durst wear that in Scotland." The Doctor told him that,
though he had gone about a great deal among the Presby-
terians of all ranks, and though he had been taken in some
places for a bishop, yet he had received not the least affront.
But the Doctor's man, who was by, informed Norgate pri-
vately that his master was deaf, or else he would have had
a different story to tell The Scottish women, seeing him
pass in his priest's coat, had saluted him with such ejacula-
tions as " If thou beest a Bishop, the Deil hold thy head ! "
A cauld cast on thy chaps ! " or " My malison on thee ! "-
the Doctor hearing not a word, or taking it all for com-
pliment.1
Though the letters brought by Dr. Moysley were not
without some effect, the King resolved that it would be best
i Letter of Norgate, of date cited, in S. P. 0. ; and Baillio, 1. 207, 208.
62 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
at least to overawe the Scots by his near personal presence.
Leaving Newcastle, therefore, he arrived with his Court and
Army, on the 28th of May, at Berwick, where there was
already a strong garrison, and where he was separated but by
the river Tweed from the rebellious land of his birth. The
camp was pitched on a plain or haugh of the Tweed, at a
place called Birks, about two miles above Berwick. Here, in
the midst, stood the King's pavilion, and round it, at various
distances, the tents of the nobles and courtiers, and of the
inferior officers and soldiers, with ensigns of different colours
flying. The total of the troops, besides the garrison of
Berwick, was 19,614 foot and 3,260 horse. Arundel was
Lord-general or Commander-in-chief, with Essex for his Lieu-
tenant-general, Holland for his Master of Horse, Lord New-
port for Master of Ordnance, Lord Goring for Lieutenant-
general of Horse, Lord Wilmot for Commissary-general, and
Sir Jacob Astley for Sergeant-major-general. Among the
commanders of horse-regiments were the Earl of Newcastle,
the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, Viscount Grandison,
Lord Clifford, Thomas Fairfax, and the witty Sir John Suck-
ling ; and, among the commanders of foot-regiments, the
Earl of Lindsey, Sir Ferdinando Fairfax, Lord Barrymore, Sir
Henry Vane, Sir William Savile, and Sir John Hotham.
Serving under these in the horse-troops or as subalterns in
the foot-regiments were many English gentlemen of good
families and estates.1 Had the King chosen, he might have
had the services also of a good many of the refugee Scots.
These refugee Scots, however, not being favourites in the
English camp, the greater number of them had been required
1 Rushworth, III. 926, 927; where lists Astley £2 each; Wilmot £1 10s.
of the regiments and their commanders Colonels of Foot had £1 a day each ;
are given. In the S. P. 0. are many lieut. -colonels 10s. ; captains of corn-
documents relating to the northern panies 6s. ; lieutenants 3s. ; ensigns
army and the camp at Birks — including 2s. Qd. ; sergeants and drummers Is. ;
the "musters" or parchment rolls corporals IQd. ; and each private soldier
containing, county by county, the 8d. In the Horse the pay was higher :
names of all the poor fellows draughted 8s. for every captain ; 5s. for lieute-
to serve in this expedition of Xerxes. nants, 4s. for cornets, 3s. for corporals,
From the same sources I have gathered and 2s. Qd. for every private. Army
the following as to the rates of pay in chaplains and physicians had 6s. Sd.
the army per diem : — Arundel, as lord- a day ; chirurgeons from 4s. to 2s. Qd. ;
general, had £10 a day; Essex £6; " preachers " 4s. ; apothecaries 3s. 4e£.
Holland £5 ; Newport £4 ; Goring and
1638-39.] FIRST "BISHOPS* WAlt." 63
either to shift for themselves in England, or to return to
Scotland to be of what use they could in their respective
districts. Young Viscount Aboyne, who had managed to reach
the King at Newcastle by a coasting boat from Aberdeenshire
in very poor guise, did obtain the King's commission to return
as his Lieutenant in the North, and, along with this, an order
to the Marquis of Hamilton to see him conveyed back to
Aberdeen, with such Aberdonian or other refugees as chose
to accompany him, and with such help in the shape of English
soldiers and war-materials as could be spared from the fleet.
The King's advance to the border had been preceded by a
proclamation forbidding the Scots to approach in arms within
ten miles of the English lines. Willing to respect this order
as long as there might be chance of accommodation, Leslie
had fixed the head-quarters of the Scottish army at Dunglass,
on the Haddingtonshire coast, about 3 0 miles from Edinburgh
and 2 5 from Berwick. As he feared nothing so much for his
countrymen, however, as a policy of mere blockade or inaction
on the other side, which should waste time and exhaust the
Scottish resources, he had made up his mind, if necessary, to
take the initiative, or, as Baillie expresses it, to " make a bolt
through the reek and get a grip of some of those that had
first kindled the fire and still laid fuel to it." With this view,
his expresses were already out for the quick assembly at
Dunglass of such forces as were still delayed in the north or
otherwise dispersed. Let them finish with the King first,
and there would be time to reckon with the Aberdonians
afterwards if they again stirred ! While he was so reasoning,
two little movements on the King's side gave him all the
pretext he wanted. After midnight, on the 31st of May, the
Lord-general Arundel, having heard of an intended muster of
Covenanters that day at Dunse in Berwickshire, some miles
from the English camp, and thinking it would be a good
stroke to surprise them, took the road secretly, with Holland,
( Coring, and a small band of horse. When, about daybreak,
however, they reached Dunse, they found the men all flown,
and only women and children in an uproar of fear. Some of
them went so far as to cry " Deil tak Leslie," and others were
64 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
down on their knees, imploring the General " not to burn
their houses and bring in Paperie." On Arundel's courteously
reassuring them, they brought " wine, ale, pans of milk, and
such-like trinkets as they had," not refusing payment ; and,
as nothing more was to be done, and it was ascertained indeed
that tidings of the intended visit had reached Dunse two
hours beforehand (sent, doubtless, by some of the kindly
Scottish pages about the King), the party rode back. But,
three days afterwards, Holland, repeating the exploit for
himself, by a different road, and on a larger scale, came off in
even a sorrier manner. With 1,000 horse and 3,000 foot he
had got as far as Kelso, when, his horse being at the moment
a mile or two in advance of his foot, he became aware of
the presence, not of Arundel's old women of Dunse, but of a
body of Scottish horse and pikemen, posted on and by the
sides of the road at the entrance to the town. Appearances
not being favourable, Holland called a halt, and ordered a
trumpet to advance to ask who they were that lay so near
the King. " Whose trumpet are you ? " was the Scottish
answer. " My Lord Holland's " was the reply ; whereupon
there came from the other spokesman the information that
they did not know what business Lord Holland had to be
there asking such questions, and that if he did not remove
" they would show him the way." Holland, after consulting
with his officers, took the advice given him, and retreated at
full speed, the Scots making no attempt to prevent him. His
return set the whole camp talking ; and, though he blamed
Eoger Witherington, the scoutmaster, for having misled him
by defective information, and represented the body of Scots
that had turned him back as 10,000 at the least, ill-natured
people gave their own version of the matter, and from that
day the story of his Kelso raid was never forgotten against
him. The Scots whom he had met were a band under Colonel
Monro and Lords Fleming and Erskine.1
i Baillie I. 205—208 (with letters of " Berwick, June 3"; one from Sir
Leslie in Appendix to Baillie, 438 et Henry Vane to Hamilton, dated " June
seq.) ; and, for Arundel's and Hoi- 4"; and another from Norgate to
land's raids, three letters in S. P. 0. : Reade, dated "June 5." See also Rush-
viz, one from Norgate to Reade, dated worth, III. 936.
1638-39.] FIRST "BISHOPS' WAR." 65
The Scottish territory having been invaded, there was an
end to the rule of the ten miles' distance between the two
camps. If that rule were not to be reciprocal, the King had
only to advance, and the Scots would have to retreat before
him, by ten miles and ten miles, till they reached Johno' Groat's.
In short, Leslie raised his camp at Dunglass, and, his army
having been swelled by the last levies to be expected, en-
camped, on the 4th of June, on Dunse Law, a gentle hill,
of no great size, but convenient for the purpose, near the
aforesaid town of Dunse, and commanding the direct road
from Berwick to Edinburgh. The two armies were now
within six or seven miles of each other ; and the King, who
had received no warning of Leslie's approach, could view his
rebel -subjects and their movements through his prospect -
glass.1
" It would have done you good," writes Baillie to his cousin
Spang, minister at Campvere in Holland, " to have casten
" your eyes athort our brave and rich hill as often as I did.
" Our hill was garnished on the top, towards the south and
" east, with our mounted cannon, well near to the number of
" forty, great and small. Our regiments lay on the sides of
" the hill, almost round about, the total number being about
" 20,000 men. The crowners lay in kennous [canvas]
" lodges, high and wide ; their captains about them in lesser
" ones ; the sojours about all, in huts of timber, covered with
" divot [turf] or straw. Our crowners for the most part were
" noblemen. Rothes, Lindsay, Sinclair, had among them two
" full regiments at least from Fife ; Balcarras a horse-troop ;
" Loudoun, Montgomery, Erskine, Boyd, Fleming, Kirkcud-
" bright, Yester, Dalhousie, Eglintoun, Cassilis, and others,
" either with whole or half regiments." Baillie explains
that Montrose was absent in the north, and that Argyle was
not in the camp at first, but came in a few days with an
addition of Highlanders to those already in the camp. " Our
" captains," he continues, " for the most part barons or gen-
" tlemen of good note ; our lieutenants almost all sojours who
" had served over the sea in good charges : every company ha« 1 ,
» Rush worth, III. 937, and Baillie, I. 210.
VOL II F
66 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" flying at the captain's tent-door, a brave new colour, stamped
" with the Scottish arms, and this ditton, TOR CHRIST'S
" CROWN AND COVENANT/ in golden letters." Of the soldiers
he says that they " were all lusty and full of courage, the
most of them stout young ploughmen." Though there was
difficulty in obtaining money enough from Edinburgh to
give them " their sixpence a day " regularly, there was little
discontent on that score, from the abundance of provisions.
" Our meanest sojours was always served in wheat-bread, and
" a groat would have gotten them a lamb-leg ; which was a
" dainty world to the most of them." Moreover, " every one
" encouraged another ; the sight of the nobles and their be-
" loved pastors daily raised their hearts"; and there were " the
" good sermons and prayers, morning and even, under the roof
" of heaven, to which the drums did call them for bells," and
" the remonstrances very frequent of the goodness of their
" cause, and of their conduct hitherto by a hand clearly divine."
For the officers there were more special " ecclesiastic meet-
ings " in Rothes's tent. Military meetings or councils of war
were held at Leslie's quarters in the Castle of Dunse at
the foot of the hill. Here, surrounded by a guard of some
hundreds of Edinburgh lawyers armed as musketeers, Leslie
kept open table at his own charge ; in which custom he was
imitated by some of the nobles. Every night Leslie himself
and his Lieutenant-general Baillie rode the rounds of the
camp and saw to the setting of the watches. The faith in
Leslie was unbounded. "We were feared," says Baillie,
" that emulation among our nobles might have done harm,
" when they should be met in the fields ; but such was the
" wisdom and authority of that old little crooked soldier
" that all, with ane incredible submission, from the beginning
" to the end, gave over themselves to be guided by him,
" as if he had been Great Solyman." In fine, all was in
such perfect condition, physically and morally, that the good
minister of Kilwinning had never felt himself before in so
" sweet, meek, humble, yet strong " a frame of spirit, and
could then and there willingly have died.1
i Baillie, I. 211— 214.
1638-39.] FIRST " BISHOPS' WAR," 67
The dim vision which Charles had of the Scottish army
through his prospect-glass was not reassuring. Of the utter
disorder and demoralization of his own army he could
have no doubt. The commissariat arrangements were so
wretched that, as he went about looking at the men trenching
for a new camp, he was saluted with cries for bread and
drink, and had to send for twenty or thirty cartloads of both
on the spot. The men were so unhandy in the use of their
arms that already a shot from one musket had gone through
the royal tent The officers were mostly " discomposed and
unready " ; of which there was as free talk among the men "as
if they were in Bantam." The very clerks and other attend-
ants on the King were wishing that they were back in West-
minster.1 The nobles and chief officers, in whose readiness
to serve him he could most fully trust, could give him no
hope ; and there were others of whose disinclination to the
expedition from the first he was well aware. Then there
was all England behind him, equally indisposed, with but
few exceptions, and the Puritans more especially applauding
Lord Saye and Sele and Lord Brooke for withstanding him
to his face. In short, most reluctantly after having come so
far and made such a display of " the kingly way," he had
to conclude that a reconciliation with the Scots would be
advisable.2 The question then was how to bring this about
with the least loss to his kingly dignity. About that there
was not much difficulty. There had been more coming and
going between the two camps than he was aware of; and
so, when, on the 5th of June, one Robin Leslie, a Scottish
page of the King's, presented himself at Dunse Castle, where
Leslie and the Scottish chiefs were holding consultation, and
made a suggestion to them, as if purely out of his own head,
that they should try another supplication to the King, the
hint was at once understood. " Had we been ten times vic-
" torious in set battles," says Baillie, " it was our conclusion to
" have laid down our arms at his feet, and on our knees pre-
" sen ted nought but our first supplications. We had no other
» Lettow from Norgate, from the * Letter of Sir Henry Vane to
camp, to Hondo in London, of dates Hamilton, of date Juno 4, givon in
May 28 and Juno 3, in tl,. s. I'. < >. Riwhworth, III. 936.
68 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" end of our wars ; we sought no crowns ; we aimed not at
" lands and honours to our party ; we desired but to keep
" our own in the service of our Prince, as our ancestors had
" done ; we loved no new masters : had our throne been void,
" and our voices sought for the filling of Fergus's chair, we
" would have died ere any other had sitten down on that
" fatal marble but Charles alone." -1 In short, from that day
began a series of negotiations, which, continued over some
twelve days, with various ebbings and flowings according to
the ups and downs of the King's mood, issued, on Tuesday
the 18th of June, in a formal Pacification.
The stages of the negotiation may be noted. First, on the
6th of June, the young Earl of Dunfermline was sent to the
English camp, under a flag of truce, with a " supplication " to
the King, and letters to the English Privy Councillors in
camp requesting their good offices with his Majesty. Next
Sir Edmund Verney, Knight Marshal, returned to the Scottish
camp with Dunfermline, and a letter dictated by Mr. Secre-
tary Coke, requiring certain submissions ere the King would
treat. These submissions having been arranged, or got over with
some ingenuity on both sides, the Earls of Eothes and Dun-
fermline, Lord Loudoun, and Sir William Douglas of Cavers
went over, as Commissioners for the Scots, under safe-conduct,
and had an interview, in Arundel's tent, with Arundel himself,
Essex, Holland, the Earls of Salisbury and Berkshire, Sir Henry
Vane, and Secretary Coke. While they were conversing, they
were surprised and somewhat flurried by the sudden appear-
ance of the King himself. He walked in, and began talking to
them in such a way that they had some difficulty in reconciling
their duty to their constituents with the forms of respect due
to the royal reasoner. " Sure I am," he said, " you are never
" able to justify all your actions ; the best way, therefore,
" were to take my word and submit all to my judgment."
Not too much affected by such majestic nonsense, the Scottish
Commissioners, remaining to dine with Arundel, were able to
put some terms on paper on that day. Subsequent meetings
having been held, in which Henderson and Archibald John-
1 Baillie, I. 215.
1638-39.] FIRST " BISHOPS' WAR." 69
stone were added to the number of the Scottish Commis-
sioners, and the Marquis of Hamilton and the Earl of
Pembroke to that of the English Commissioners, while the
King now regularly sat among them and discussed everything
in a business-like manner, there emerged at last a perfect
treaty. Nothing was more surprising in these conferences
than the liking which the King seemed to show for Hen-
derson. Kothes and Loudoun seemed to be the other favour-
ites, and he gave all the six Commissioners his hand to
kiss at parting ; but Henderson made the greatest impres-
sion. And not on the King only, but on all the English
courtiers. " For Hyndersham," writes Norgate, " he is of all
" highly commended for a grave, pious, and learned man.
" He hath made one at every conference, and Mr. Secretary
" [Coke] tells me that in all his speeches you may find as
" much devotion, wisdom, humility, and obedience as can be
" wished for in an honest man and a good subject." Some-
thing of this admiration of Henderson seems to have been
reflected upon all his brethren of the Scottish Kirk. Not
at all " incendiaries," but men who " can say grace longer
" and better than our cainpestrial chaplains who ride before
" our regiments taking tobacco," is Norgate's half-jocose
report of the Earl of Stamford's opinion of the Presbyterian
ministers, formed during a visit he had paid to the Scottish
camp. And, as the Scottish Covenanting clergy had risen
in favour, so the Scottish bishops and their clerical ad-
herents had fallen. Everybody was " blessing them back-
wards," as the cause of the whole trouble ; and such of them
as were in the English camp went about in sore plight, the
King himself " weary of them," and putting them off with
£10 or so apiece, "the whole Court hating them," and the
pages " publicly jeering at them." Of all of them Baillie
most pitied poor Dr. Barron of Aberdeen, who never held up
his head, but died at Berwick ere a fortnight was over.1
» Baillio, I. 216, 217, and 220, 221 ; and another (June 13) a kind of vor-
Stoveiwon, 376, 377 ; Hush worth, III. batim report of the King's dialogue
937—943 ; and official memoranda of with the Scottish deputies ; also Let-
the Conferences in too 8. P. O.,— one tors of Norgate to Reado, of dates
being a "Journal of the Pacification," Juno 15 and Juno 19, in S. P. 0.
70 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
The " Pacification of Birks," as it was called, was embodied
in two documents. One was a Royal Declaration, in which his
Majesty, while guarding himself against bSing supposed to ap-
prove the acts of " the pretended Assembly " at Glasgow, or of
" the pretended Tables," did nevertheless substantially promise
all that was claimed. He promised the future regulation of
all ecclesiastical and civil affairs in Scotland by free annual
Assemblies of the Kirk and free Parliaments of the realm : one
such Assembly to be held on the 6th of August, and one such
Parliament on the 20th of August immediately following, at
both of which his Majesty hoped, God willing, to be personally
present. The other document, entitled Articles of Pacifica-
tion, consisted of eight Articles, relating to the immediate
disbanding of the two armies, and the mutual restoration of
persons, goods, ships, &c., seized on either side, — one Article
providing for the resurrender to the King of his castles and
forts in Scotland.1 Any demur to the terms of these Articles
was rather on the Scottish side than on the English ; and
when, on the 24th of June, the English army was disbanded,
it was, says Norgate, like the " break-up of a school." 2 Less
polite to the Scots than Norgate's words on the occasion, but
equally to the purpose, are those of Thomas Windebank,
eldest son of Secretary Windebank, and in attendance on the
King as groom of the chamber. " We have had," he says,
in a letter from the camp to his cousin Reade in London
after the Peace was concluded, " a most cold, wet, and long
" time of it ; but we kept our soldiers warm with the hopes
" of rubbing, fubbing, and scrubbing those scurvy, filthy,
" dirty, nasty, lousy, itchy, scabby, slovenly, snotty-nosed,
" loggerheaded, foolish, insolent, proud, beggarly, impertinent,
" absurd, grout -headed, villainous, barbarous, bestial, false,
" lying, roguish, devilish, long-eared, short-haired, damnable,
" atheistical, Puritanical crew of the Scotch Covenant. But
" now there is peace in Israel." 3
1 Rushworth, III. 943 — 946; and June 22." I have omitted two of
Baillie, I. 217, 218. Windebank's adjectives as unpresent-
2 Letter to Reade in S. P. 0. able. We shall hear of the Windebank
3 Letter in S. P. 0. dated "Berwick, family again.
1638-39.] FIRST "BISHOPS* WAR." 71
A very precarious peace it was. Hardly had the treaty
been concluded when the King's ill humour with it began to
show itself. For about a month, indeed, he remained at
Berwick, consulting about Scottish affairs with Rothes, Argyle,
Montrose, and others of the Covenanting leaders, summoned
thither to meet him. But these consultations, on his side,
were changed into reproaches. In consequence of the popular
discontent in Scotland arising from the phrases " pretended
Assembly " and " pretended Tables " used by the King in his
Declaration, and from the too great advantages seemingly
given to the King in some of the Articles of the treaty, it had
been found necessary to accompany the formal proclamations
of the treaty in Scottish towns with certain " informations
against mistaking the same." Of these Charles spoke as
" seditious glosses " ; and he was very quarrelsome on account
of them, not only with Rothes, Argyle, and Montrose, but
also with the Earls of Pembroke and Salisbury, and some
others of the English Commissioners, who were accused of
having abetted the Scots in their private dealings with them.
At all events, he could not think of now countenancing Scot-
land so far as to go to Edinburgh to open the Assembly and
the Parliament as he had intended. Accordingly, having
appointed Traquair as his Commissioner for that duty
(Hamilton positively refusing to serve in the office again), he
turned his back to Scotland on the 29th of July ; and on the
3rd of August he was again at Whitehall.1
i There ore more detailed accounts Among the last is a correspondence
of the King's conduct at Berwick after between Secretary Windobank and the
the Peace in Baillie, I. 220, 221, Sto- Earls of Pembroke and Salisbury relnt-
venson, 384 et «eo.. Rushworth. III. ing to their alleged complicity with
946 et *q., and inMSS. in the a P. 0. the Scots.
CHAPTEE II
MILTON BACK IN ENGLAND OLD FRIENDS EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS
LODGINGS IN ST. BRIDE'S CHURCHYARD. LITERARY PROJECTS
MILTON'S SISTER AND HIS TWO NEPHEWS.
MILTON may have received the news of the conclusion of the
King's War with the Scots either at Geneva or at Paris ; in
which last city there appeared an official gazette, of date
July 20, 1639, containing Le Traitt fait entre le Eoy de la
Grande Bretagne et les Ecossois du Covenant.1 Crossing to
Dover, he was back in London, or probably in his father's
house at Horton, Buckinghamshire, almost exactly at the
time when the Londoners were receiving Charles back from
his unsuccessful northern expedition.
At Horton, Milton found little changed. His father was
still there, going about hale as usual ; and his younger
brother, Christopher, and Christopher's young wife Thomasine,
in whose charge he had left the old man, were still residing
under the paternal roof. Christopher was not yet called to the
bar, though he had been for nearly seven years a student of
the Inner Temple. Of one little appearance and disappear-
ance in the Horton household during his absence Milton
would now hear both from the old man and the young, and
also, more sadly, from the young wife. Examining the Horton
parish-register, I came, not without some feeling myself, upon
this entry: — " 1639 : An infant sonne of Christopher Milton,
gent., buried March ye 2 6thi" It is the small remaining record
now of the existence of a little nephew of Milton's, the first-
born of Christopher and his wife, who had died without
1 There is a copy of this gazette in impression made abroad by recent
the S. P. 0. Both Charles and Winde- events in Britain,
bank were evidently anxious about the
1639-40.] MILTON BACK IN ENGLAND. 73
having lived long enough to have a name, or to have been
seen by his uncle. They had laid the little body, I suppose,
in the same grave, in the chancel of the church close by,
where Milton had seen his mother buried two years before,
and the plain blue stone covering which, and inscribed with
the name and the date of the death, is now the most sacred
object in that quiet rustic church. The Rector of the parish,
Mr. Goodall, who had entered the little burial in the register,
had himself, as another entry in his hand proves, had a new
little one born to him in the Rectory.1 In the colony of the
Bulstrodes, already known to us as the chief people of Horton,
and as living partly in the manor-house with Squire Henry
Bulstrode and partly in adjacent houses, there had been a
very recent death.2 But, indeed, the deaths in Horton seem
at that time, and chiefly from mortality among infants, to
have been preponderating over the births. Against 2 8 burials
in the year 1638, and 27 in the year 1639, I read in the
registers of but 13 christenings and 10 christenings respect-
ively. The Horton marriages for 1638 are 4, and for 1639
they are 6 ; so that there may have been about half-a-dozen
weddings in the place while Milton was abroad. What
other little incidents of the familiar neighbourhood during
his absence may have had some interest for him, or for his
serving-man, after their return, are now as irrecoverable as
those golden days of an English autumn that again beheld
him enjoying the rest of his father's house, or walking amid
the richly-wooded English meadows round it, with the towers
of Windsor once more in his view.
Would not one of his first walks, in the direction of those
towers, be to Eton College, to pay his respects, after his
return, to that good old Sir Henry Wotton whose acquaint-
ance he had made just before his departure, who had then
spoken so handsomely both of him and of his Comus, who
had expressed his desire that they might yet see more of
each other, and who had sent after him so thoughtfully a letter
of introduction to friends in Paris, and that memorable advice
i It is among the baptisms : " 1639 : * " ISAAC, sonn of Edwardo and Mil-
Anne, daughter of Edward and Sarah dred Bulatrode, buried July 28th."
Goodall, bap. May 28."
74 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
for his behaviour in Italy, the fruit of his own former diplo-
matic experience there, " I ' pensieri stretti, et il mso sciolto " ? 1
Alas ! the good old Provost of Eton, the first man of public
mark that had recognised the genius of Milton in what we
should now consider fit terms, was all but on his deathbed.
As late as the spring of this very year he had been in his
usual health, taking his usual interest in the affairs of the
day, and corresponding as usual with his numerous friends.
He had been following with anxiety the course of the King's
expedition against the Scots, had been reading Dr. Balcan-
quhal's " Large Declaration " of the grounds which the King
had for war upon his Scottish subjects, and, influenced partly
by the representations of that work, and partly by the habits
of thought of an old politician, had considered the cause of
the Covenanters very untenable, and their conduct "very
black." 2 He had set out from Eton on his usual summer
tour, and had visited, among other places, Winchester School,
where he had been educated, and where the sight of the
youngsters playing at the same games that he had played at
sixty years before pleased his benevolent heart. But he had
scarcely returned to Eton when asthma and other infirmities
laid him prostrate. He could no longer go abroad, or con-
tinue his wonted hospitalities within doors, or even enjoy
his favourite solace of tobacco. He would still converse,
indeed, with John Hales, and other fellows of the College
in close attendance upon him, to whom he was leaving the
care of his books, pictures, and manuscripts. Occasionally
he would refer to public affairs ; but chiefly he confined him-
self, as his biographer tells us, to pious retrospects of his long
and chequered life, and to expressions of thanksgiving to God
for all his many mercies. It is very doubtful whether, in
these circumstances, Milton could have had access to him, or
whether, if Milton did see him, anything more could have
passed than the merest tokens of respectful regret on the one
hand, and kindly questionings about the Italian journey on
the other. Certain it is that that renewal of their acquaint-
1 See Vol. I. 737—739. 1639, in Reliquice WottoniancK (edit.
2 Letter of Wotton, dated April 21, 1685), p. 580.
1639-40.] MILTON BACK IN ENGLAND: OLD FRIENDS. 75
ance over " a poor meal or two," in Sir Henry's rooms, and
in the company of their common friend Mr. Hales, to which
Sir Henry had looked forward, could not now take place.
Sir Henry lingered on till December ; when he died, in his
seventy-second year.1
Either in his father's house at Horton, or in visits to
London, Milton might obtain information respecting old
friends and acquaintances now dispersed. His first preceptor,
Thomas Young, was still in his vicarage of Stowmarket in
Suffolk, watching the signs of the times with the feelings
natural to an English Puritan minister who had not forgotten
his Scottish birth. For the present, indeed, he was wearing
the surplice which his parishioners had been obliged to
provide for him, to avoid the censure of so strict a diocesan
as Wren of Norwich ; but he was nursing his Puritan prin-
ciples nevertheless, and he had just (1639) given proof of
them in a thin Latin quarto, printed at Ipswich for private
circulation, and containing, under the title of "Dies Dominica"
a history of the Sabbath, and a vindication of the Puritan
idea of its institution. He had not put his name to this
treatise, but had signed himself " Theophilus Philo-Kuriaces,
Loncardiensis." It was a designation the meaning of which
no English ingenuity could then have made out, but in which
we now read a covert assertion of his sympathy with the
struggle in his native land. " A lover of the Kirk (or perhaps
rather ' of the Lord's Day ') all the way from Luncarty in
Perthshire, though now labouring in Suffolk ", — this, or some-
thing like this, is the meaning that Young, in fear of Wren or
of Laud, had ingeniously packed up in the uncouth-looking
pseudonym.2
There was no such necessity for secrecy among those
other old friends of Milton, most of them also of the clerical
1 Izaak Walton's Life of Wotton. rently by his own hand. Tho treatise
2 Hollingworth's Hist, of Stowmar- consists of 132 pages of Latin, with
ket (1844), pp. 187 — 194. Young's Greek quotations. It i^doscribod by Mr.
treatise on the Sabbath seems to be Robert Cox in his work The Literature
yery scarce ; but there is a copy of it in of the Sabbath Question (Ed in, 1865.
:<nburgh University Library, and 2 vols.), to whom I owe the suggestion
Mr. Hollingworth describes one which that " KuriaJce* " means " LorcTa Day "
was in his possession, and which bore rather than "Church" or "Lord's
Young's name on it, written appa- House," as I had hinted, Vol. I. p. 68.
76 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
profession, who were associated in his memory with his
college -days at Cambridge. While he had been abroad,
Christ's College had suffered a great loss in the death of its
famous news-collector and Apocalyptic commentator, Joseph
Meade. He had died on the 1st of the preceding October, in
his well-known rooms in the College, in the chapel of which
his bones still rest. Poorer by this loss, the old College was
otherwise much as it had been when Milton left England.
Bainbrigge was still Master; Power, Siddall, Honey wood,
Gell, and Alsop were still among the Fellows ; and young
Henry More, now M.A., was still resident in the College, its
recognised hope since the death of Edward King, and with a
fellowship in prospect.
Both Milton's tutors at Christ's, as the reader already
knows, had left the College several years before Milton had
set out on his travels.1 Kespecting them, therefore, his in-
formation would necessarily be more indirect. Of Tovey
there was little to learn, save that he was still parson of
Lutterworth. Chappell, on the other hand, was now rather
a notorious person in connexion with Wentworth's Irish
government. Since his appointmeut in 1 6 3 4 to the Provost-
ship of Trinity College, Dublin, on the nomination of Laud,
there had been a continued opposition to him among the
undergraduates and junior Fellows of the College, on account
of his so-called " Arminianising " tendencies, his zeal for
Laudian uniformity, and the general severity of his manage-
ment. The Visitors of the College, among whom was the
Irish Primate Usher, had taken up the feud, and, being
mostly Calvinists or adverse to Laud's influence in Ireland,
had sided rather with the opposition than with Chappell.
The Lords Justices in Ireland had also been appealed to
officially ; one of the junior Fellows, named Phesant, who
had particular grievances against Chappell, and whom Laud
styles " a very bold young man," had gone over to London
to urge the complaint ; and the thing had grown into the
dimensions of a public quarrel, in which Laud as Chancellor
of Trinity College, Wentworth as Irish Viceroy, and the King
1 Vol. I. pp. 128—131, and p. 692.
1639-40.] MILTON BACK IN ENGLAND: OLD FRIENDS. 77
himself as consulted by them, were resolute in standing by
rimppell, against Usher, the Visitors, the junior Fellows of
the College, and the popular opinion of Dublin. The parti-
culars of the story are to be gathered from an extensive
correspondence begun as early as September 1636, and not
ended at the time at which we have now arrived. Laud,
from the first, had taken up the cause of his client most
stoutly, writing over to Usher that he was astonished that
a few " young men newly started up from boys " should be
allowed to cause such a disturbance, and treating the special
charges against Chappell, — his Arminianism, his so-called
" idolatrical " habit of making obeisance on entering church,
his zeal for the new statutes, and his general strictness, — as
either of no consequence, or actual testimonies to his merit
What Laud thus advised by letter, Wentworth, who had been
absent from Ireland at the outbreak of the quarrel, took care
to carry by the high hand. In spite of Usher and the other
Visitors, and of public opinion in Dublin, Wentworth had not
only maintained Chappell in theProvostship,but had so counte-
nanced him as greatly to increase his unpopularity, and earn
for him among Irish ultra- Protestants the reputation of being
Laud's chief instrument in Ireland, and a perfect Canterbury
in miniature. " I have so great an opinion of his govern-
" ment and integrity," writes Wentworth to Laud, " that I am
" putting my own son thither under his eye and care; by
" which you will judge that I propose not to have him one
" of Prynne's disciples." Indeed, Wentworth's high opinion
of Chappell as Provost stood in the way of Chappell's pre-
ferment to a Bishopric, — the Provostship being so important
a post, and Wentworth knowing, as he said, of no man so fit
for it if he lost Chappell. Here, however, Laud looked after
the interests of his client, who ought not, as he said, to
suffer from his own excellence. He persuaded the King to
make an exception in that particular case to his rule in
appointments to bishoprics, and to promote Chappell to the
vacant Irish bishopric of Cloyne and Ross, allowing him
still to retain the Provostship in commcndam. This pro-
motion had been made in the summer of 1638, and the last
78 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
phase in the Chappell quarrel had been a remonstrance on
the part of Usher and the Irish against such a union of the
Provostship and an Irish bishopric in the same hands. It
was contrary to the oath in Laud's own statutes of the
College, Usher urged, and would be a pernicious precedent.
Chappell, he understood, was willing to resign the Provost-
ship to a brother of his who was then " keeping " with him
in the College. If there were objections to that arrangement,
why not offer the Provostship to that worthy man, Mr. Joseph
Meade, of Christ's College, Cambridge (this was three months
before Meade's death), whom everybody would allow to be fit
for it, and who, indeed, had been named for it four years
before, when his College-comrade, Chappell, got it ? Or,
there was another Cambridge man who would do very well,
— Mr. Hewlett, recently fellow and tutor of Sidney- Sussex
College, but now in Ireland ; respecting whose qualifications
the Bishop of Derry (Bramhall) would be able to satisfy
his Grace. Accordingly Bramhall did write to Laud in favour
of Hewlett. He had himself for some time been a pupil
of Hewlett's at Sidney-Sussex College (another pupil of
Hewlett's there, perhaps known to Bramhall as such, having
been Oliver Cromwell), and he could certify him to be " a
moderate man in his tenets." Moreover, he had about £600
a year of his own from land in England, and was about to
marry the daughter of Mrs. Browne, whom Laud knew.
In spite of all which negotiation, the matter had not been
ended when Milton returned from abroad ; and the Provost-
ship, with the bishopric of Cloyne and Eoss, still remained in
Chappell's hands. If the reader remembers what cause
Milton had had to know about Chappell's temper and ways
for himself, it will not appear strange that those recent
incidents of Chappell's Irish career should have had some
interest for him of a personal kind.1
Long before Milton could have collected such news of
1 The information respecting Chap- the State Paper Office (Irish series of
pell in this paragraph is partly from Papers). But see also Dr. Elring-
letters in the Strafford Papers, partly ton's Life of Usher, prefixed to the col-
from extensive transcripts of my own lected edition of Usher's Works (Dublin,
from the original correspondence in 1847).
1639-40.] MILTON BACK IN ENGLAND: OLD FRIENDS. 79
Chappell and other old acquaintances at a distance, he must
have looked up his nearer friends in and about London.
Among these were Alexander Gill the younger, and Henry
Lawes the musician. Gill, no longer needing to be styled
"the younger" (for his father had been dead since 1635,
and he was now a man of forty-two, and a Doctor of Divinity
to boot), was still in his father's place as head-master of
St. Paul's School. He was now on good terms enough with
Laud and the other constituted authorities of Church and
State ; and the recollection of his former misdeeds and
punishment had pretty well blown over.1 But he was the
same rough, blustering unfortunate as ever. His Latin verses
were finding their way about, and attesting his scholarship,
such as it was ; but in the School he was by no means giving
satisfaction, and the Mercers, as patrons of the School, were
thinking of removing him, chiefly on account of his savage
treatment of the boys.2 If from the Schoolhouse in Old
Change Milton went to the house or chambers of Henry
Lawes, to show him some of the rare new music, by Marenzo
and other masters, of which he had brought over two chests
from Italy, the contrast between Gill and the gentle musician
must have been great. The reputation of Lawes had been
growing since he set the songs of Milton's Comus to music,
and he had been performing similar services since for other
poets, such as Waller and Herrick, better known about the
Court, though perhaps not so dear to himself. He was still
teaching music in the Bridgewater family, and Milton might
hear from him, if he did not otherwise know it, that the family
were then mainly residing not at Ludlow or at Ashridge, but
in their town-house in the Barbican.8 It was more than three
years since the Earl had been left a widower by the death of
his Countess, and more than two since her mother, the vener-
able Countess-Dowager of Derby, the heroine of the Arcades,
had died at Harefield. The elder daughters of the widowed
K:ii 1 had for some time been married and away from him ;
but the three of his children in whom Milton would feel most
i Vol. I. pp. 207—213, p. 510, and » Letters of the Earl in the 8. P. O.,
1-I-. 6664. "f tho years 1639 and 1640, are mostly
« Wood's Athen. III. 42. dated from his hoiwo in the Rirhican.
80 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
interest, as those pupils of Lawes who had not only taken
part in the little open-air entertainment of the Arcades at
Harefield House,1 but had been the actors in the masque of
Gomus at Ludlow Castle,2 were still under the Earl's roof.
The Lady Alice was in her nineteenth year, and the two
brothers, Lord Brackley and Mr. Thomas Egerton, were yet
but growing youths.
One friend, alas ! whose welcome would have been dearer
to him than that of any other, was no longer in the world.
Charles Diodati, his bosom friend in the days when they had
been boys together at St. Paul's School, and of his singular
affection for whom ever since we have had so many proofs,
had died during his absence.
Milton had heard of the event, as we have seen (Vol. T.
829-30), while he was still abroad. The full particulars,
however, had remained unknown to him till his return.
Then he did ascertain them ; but it is only recently that,
despite the utmost assiduity of research on the part of sub-
sequent inquirers, they have been again brought to light.
They were disinterred by the late Colonel J. L. Chester,
the indefatigable American genealogist, in the course of his
marvellously extensive researches among the London parish
registers, and were communicated by him to me in a letter
from London dated 24th August 1874. These are the
exact words of the communication : — " Charles Diodati was
" buried at St. Anne, Blackfriars, London, 27 Aug. 1638.
" The entry in the register is simply ' Mr. Charles Deodate,
" from Mr. Dollam's.' Seventeen days before, viz. 1 0 Aug.
" 1638, was also buried there c Mrs. Philadelphia Deodate,
"from Mr. Dollam's: On the 29th of June 1638 was
" baptized ' Richard, son of John and Isabell Deodate ' ; and
" on the 23rd of June in the same year was buried 'Isabell,
" wife to John Deodate.' These are all the entries of the
" name that occur in the Register of St. Anne, Blackfriars."
Colonel Chester was able to inform me further that on the
3rd of October 1638, or five weeks after the burial of Charles
Diodati as above recorded, letters of administration to his
i Vol. I. pp. 597—602. 2 ibid. p. 611.
1639-40.] MILTON BACK IN ENGLAND : OLD FRIENDS. 81
effects were granted to his surviving brother, John Diodati.
For the due interpretation of these facts and dates, it remains
Imt to connect them with what we already know of the cir-
cumstances of the Diodati family before Milton set out on
his continental tour.
In the second of the two Latin letters from Milton to
Diodati in September 1637 given in translation ante, Vol. I.
pp. 642-6, — Milton then dating from London, and Diodati
then residing somewhere in the north of England in medical
practice or preparation for it, — there was bantering mention
of a " step-motherly war " (the Latin phrase was " bcllum
novercale ") as then troubling the good Charles, and a hope
was expressed that it would not prevent his being in London
again, and in Milton's company, in the course of the coming
winter. This could mean only, we then saw, that Diodati's
father, the elderly Italian physician, Dr. Theodore Diodati,
had thought fit, after some time of widowerhood, to bring a
new wife into his house in Little St. Bartholomew's. Such
had been the fact. Dr. Theodore, in the sixty-fifth year of
his age, had married again ; and his children by his former
marriage had taken the change to heart. For the elder of
the two sons, John Diodati, it did not, indeed, matter so
much. Engaged in some kind of mercantile business, and
married to an Isabell Underwood (such was her full name,
as ascertained by Colonel Chester), he had already left the
paternal home and become a householder on his own
account in the suburb of London, south of the Thames,
called Blackfriars. But for the younger and unmarried
son, Charles, and for his unmarried sister, Philadelphia
(whose designation of Mrs. in the Register implies nothing
more than Miss would in present usage), the matter was
more serious. Hence, when Charles did return to London
from his stay in the north, now a fully qualified physician,
and desirous of setting up in London medical practice, it was
not to his father's house in Little St. Bartholomew's that
he returned. He followed his brother John, it appears,
into tin- lUa( kliiars district, taking apartments there in the
house of a Mr. Dollam, and joined there by his sister
VOL. II G
82 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Philadelphia. It is possible, or even likely, that his return
to town occurred, as Milton had expected it might, in the
course of the winter of 1637-8 ; in which case Milton must
have been often with him during that winter in his rooms
at Mr. Dollam's. But, whether Milton, when he did set
out in April 1638, had parted with Diodati in those rooms
in Blackfriars, or whether Diodati was then still away from
London, certain it is that not one of all the friends that
Milton had left in England was so much in his thoughts as
Diodati during the months of his continental journeyings
and his residences in the chief Italian cities. There is
proof that he spoke much of the London Diodatis, and of his
friend Charles in particular, among his Italian acquaintances
of the Florentine circle ; and what can have been the motive
for that " excursion of a few days " from Florence to Lucca,
during his second two months in Florence, from February to
April 1639 (Vol. I. p. 823), if it was not a desire to see
the Italian town, of no special interest otherwise at that
time, to which the Diodatis traced their origin and their
oldest ancestral distinctions ? In the course of his subse-
quent leisurely journey from Florence homewards, he must
have been looking forward eagerly to the hour when he
should be again in Diodati's society, and should be pouring
into Diodati's ear the tale of all his doings and experiences
in the Italian towns, this visit to Lucca included.
All the more terrible the shock, which came upon him
at some point or other on that homeward journey, of the
first news of Diodati's death. The news had been much
belated ; for the death had happened six or seven months
before, while Milton was enjoying the delights of his first
two months in Florence, and not more than four months
after he had left England. The Parish Eegisters of St.
Anne, Blackfriars, make all distinct now : — The death of
Charles Diodati was the last of three deaths in the Diodati
family that had happened in close succession in the summer
of 1638. First, on the 23rd of June 1638, there was the
burial in the Churchyard of St. Anne, Blackfriars, of the
wife of John Diodati, leaving a newly -born infant son;
1639-40.]
K/'/TA VIUV.M DAAfOMS.
83
then, on the 10th of August, there was the burial in the
same churchyard, but registered as " from Mr. Dollam's," of
Philadelphia Diodati; and, finally, on the 27th of August,
there was buried, also " from Mr. Dollam's," Milton's friend,
Charles Diodati. The first of the three deaths may have
been from child-birth; but for the cause of the deaths of
Philadelphia and her brother Charles in the same house
within seventeen days of each other one imagines some fever
or other epidemic then haunting Blackfriars.
What we thus know from the preserved entries in an old
London parish -register, Milton learnt, doubtless much more
circumstantially, as soon as he was back, and going about
again in the London streets. That house in Blackfriars, so
visionary to us now as "Mr. Dollam's," must have been
looked at by him then with peculiarly melancholy interest,
whether he knew it before or not ; and among his first calls
must have been one on the recently- widowed John Diodati
in his domicile in the same fatal neighbourhood, if not one
also at the house of Dr. Theodore in Little St. Bartholomew's,
in token of continued respect for the old physician himself,
the mischief of the new wife there notwithstanding.1
1 The second marriage does not seem
to have interfered in the least with
Dr. Theodore's practice or with his
activity and cheerfulness. Among his
more aristocratic patients, I find, were
Sir Robert Harley, K.B., afterwards
im-ml»or for Herefordshire in the Long
Parliament, and a sound Parliament-
arian, and Sir Robert's wife, Lady
Hril liana, sister of Lord Con way. Now,
Lady Brilliana was an active corre-
lont; a collection of her Letters,
mainly from the family seat of B ramp-
ton - Bryan, Herefordshire, has been
pob&bed (Camde* flborfy, 1854); and
in several of these letters, addressed
to her son Edward Hurley, then at
I. mention is made, at intervals
en 1638 and 1641, of Dr. Diodati
from London and his professional visits
to the Harlovs and their neighbours.
The first of these mentions is nil that
need be quoted here: "Feb. 1, 1638
" [i.e. 1638-91" writes Lady Brilliana
to her son ; " Dr. Deodate was sent for
Mr. Robert Moore's wife, who is
" lately come out of the Low Countries :
" she had a great fever. Dr. Deodate,
' being so near, came to see your
• father and myself ; he did not forget
' to ask for you, with a great deal of
' love, and expresses a great deal of
' desire after your good. He is very
' well, and merrier than ever I saw
' him. His man told Phoebe [one of
' Lady Brilliana 's maids?] that his
' mistress [i.f. the man's mistress,
' Doctor Diodati's new wife] is with
' child : if it bo so, sure that is the
' ground of his mirth. Your ancient
' friend, Mrs. Trafford, is very big with
' child, and Dr. Deodate does SJOBJSJ
' thing fear her. Ho tells mo ho was
' almost in love with her when she
' served me, but now he cannot fancy
' her." — Here, certainly, we have an
unex{)octed glimpse of the old physician
on in H- of his country trips, five months
or thereabouts after the death of his
son Charles, Milton's friend. Notwith-
standing that loss, ho is merrier and
more jocular than usual ; and this is
attributed to a certain domestic expect-
ation, promising him a child thirty
years younger than his dead Charles
would have been. The naturalized
84 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
No need for such guesses. So far as Milton's remaining
writings furnish us with the means of inferring the nature of
his occupations and meditations during the first month or
two after his return to England, we see the death of his friend
Diodati overclouding and darkening for him everything else.
Going and coming between Horton and London, and making
up, as we have fancied, the arrears of his information as to
what of public or of private interest had passed in his absence,
we see him nevertheless thinking day after day of this most
mournful event of all, and unable to get the image of his
friend and the reported circumstances of his decease out of his
mind. His thoughts on the subject took at length the form
of an In Memoriam poem. It is that Latin elegy which,
under the title of " Epitapliium Damonis" is the sole rem-
nant of Milton's muse at this particular juncture of his life,
and, except one or two slight subsequent scraps, the last
exercise of his pen in Latin verse.
That the poem, though an expression of personal grief,
should be in that " pastoral " form which we have long dis-
used, and now account so artificial, will surprise no one who
has rightly apprehended the theory of the Pastoral as it was
understood by Spenser and his English successors (Vol. I. pp.
453 — 455). Enough here to refer to Milton's own concep-
tion of the pastoral as previously illustrated in his Lycidas.
In that poem it is not Milton personally that is before us
bewailing the death of his fellow-collegian Edward King ;
but there is reported to us by Milton the song of an
imaginary shepherd whom he sees lamenting through a whole
summer day the death of his young fellow-shepherd Lycidas,
and whom he at last describes as rising from his reverie at
sundown, twitching his blue mantle, and going slowly home-
wards. But who shall say that there is any less feeling of
reality in the effect ? Who will not rather say that it is a
finer monument to the memory of King to have let the fact
of his death thus originate a whole mood of the poet's mind,
and take possession of all the appropriate fancies, and even
London physician, brother of the veteran, with courtly and gallant Italian
famous Genevese divine, is to be ways to the last.
fancied, it seems, as a cheery, active
1639-40.] i:i'IT.\ I'll 1 I'M DAAIOMS. S .".
all the incidental thoughts about the state of England, that
could come in that mood, than if the poet had merely
registered the fact in a lyric of direct regret ? A true elegy
in the same sense, La that it is the dedication to a departed
friend of an artistic posy of the most beautiful thoughts
and fancies that can be associated with his memory even
by intellectual intention, is Milton's Epitaphium Damonis.
Between this poem of 1639 and the Lycidas of 1637,
however, there is a difference corresponding to the difference
between Milton's regard for Diodati and his regard for King.
Not the Irish-born Edward King, it has to be remembered,
but the half-Italian Charles Diodati, was pre-eminently and
peculiarly the friend of Milton in his boyhood, youth,
and early manhood. Hence Milton's grief for the death of
Diodati, as it is expressed in the Epitaphium Damonis, is
of a much more personal and intimate nature, far more
suggestive of actual tears and sobs from him in his soli-
tude, than anything discernible in the Lycidas, beautiful
though that monody is. The more strange it may still seem
to many that in the elegy on Diodati the form should be
that of the pastoral in its most extreme artificial variety.
Not only is the language Latin, and the verse the hexameter ;
but the pastoral fancy is carried out with excessive minute-
ness, and there is a deliberate recollection and imitation
throughout of particular idylls of the Greek poets, Theocritus,
Bion, and Moschus, and of the Latin Virgil. With all these
disadvantages, removing the poem from the habits of our
modern taste, it will be found, by those who will take a little
trouble with it, one of the noblest things that Milton has
left us, and certainly one of the most interesting in its
personal revelations. Even the following attempt at a
translation into English hexameters ought to convey some
such impression :—
ON THE DEATH OF DAMON.
THE ARGUMENT.
Tliyrsis and Damon, shepherds of the same neighbourhood, follow-
ing the same pursuits, were friends from their boyhood, in the
86 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
highest degree of mutual attachment. Thyrsis, having set out
to travel for mental improvement, received news when abroad of
Damon's death. Afterwards at length returning, and finding
the matter to be so, he deplores himself and his solitary condi-
tion in the following poem. Under the guise of Damon, how-
ever, is here understood Charles Diodati, tracing his descent on
the father's side from the Tuscan city of Lucca, but otherwise
English, — a youth remarkable, while he lived, for his genius, his
learning, and other most shining virtues.
Nymphs of old Himera's stream (for ye it was that remembered
Daphnis and Hylas when dead, and grieved for the sad fate of Bion),
Tell through the hamlets of Thames this later Sicilian l story—
What were the cries and murmurs that burst from Thyrsis the
wretched,
What lamentations continued he wrung from the caves and the
rivers,
Wrung from the wandering brooks and the grove's most secret
recesses,
Mourning his Damon lost, and compelling even the midnight
Into the sound of his woe, as he wandered in desolate places.
Twice had the ears in the wheatfields shot through the green of
their sheathing,
As many crops of pale gold were the reapers counting as garnered,
Since the last day that had taken Damon down from the living,
Thyrsis not being by ; for then that shepherd was absent,
Kept by the Muse's sweet love in the far-famed town of the Tuscan.2
But, when his satiate mind, and the care of his flock recollected,
Brought him back to his home, and he sat, as of old, 'neath the
elm-tree,
Then at last, O then, as the sense of his loss comes upon him,
1 "This later Sicilian story:" i.e. adopts the name of Thyrsis for himself,
this modern tale after the model of the — having already used it as the name
ancient pastoral poets, Theocritus and of one of his characters in Comus : the
Moschus, both of whom were Sicilians, other names of imaginary shepherds
and neighbours of the Sicilian river and shepherdesses introduced in the
Himera. Milton invokes the nymphs poem, as well as most of the pastoral
of that stream as the muses more espe- images, are also from the Greek and
cially of Pastoral Poetry. So also in Latin pastoral poets. In the structure
Lye Idas it is the "Sicilian Muse" that of the verse, too — as, for example, in
is present (line 133). — The first Idyll of the use of a recurring phrase breaking
Theocritus contains the lamentation the lament into separate musical parts
of the shepherd Thyrsis for the dying or bursts — he has followed the Greek
shepherd Daphnis ; the thirteenth Idyll precedent.
of the same poet relates the loss of 2 Observe how exactly these lines fix
Hylas ; and the third Idyll of Moschus the date of Diodati's death, — August
deplores the death of Bion and is en- 1638.
titled " Epitaphium Bionis." Milton
1639-40.] r.I'lTM'HIUM DAMOS I * 87
Thus he begins to disburthen all his measureless sorrow : —
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Ah me ! what deities now shall I call on in earth or in heaven,
After the pitiless death by which they have reft tbee, my Damon?
Thus dost thou leave us ? thus without name is thy virtue departed
Down to the world below, to take rank with the shadows unnoted 1
No ! May He that disparteth souls with his glittering baton
Will it not so, but lead thee into some band of the worthies,
Driving far from thy side all the mere herd of the voiceless 1
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Hap as it may, unless the wolfs black glance shall first cross me,
Not in a tearless tomb shall thy loved mortality moulder ;
Stand shall thine honour for thee, and long henceforth shall it
flourish
Mid our shepherd-lads ; and thee they shall joy to remember
Next after Daphnis chief, next after Daphnis to praise thee,
So long as Pales and Faunus shall love our fields and our meadows,
If it avails to have cherished the faith of the old and the loyal,
Pallas's arts of peace, and have bad a tuneful companion !
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Kept are these honours for thee, and thine they shall be, my Damon !
But for myself what remains ? For me what faithful companion
Now will cling to my side, in the place of the one so familiar,
All through the season harsh when the grounds are crisp with the
snow-crust,
Or 'neath the blazing sun when the herbage is dying for moisture 1
Were it the task to go forth in the track of the ravaging lions,
Or to drive back from the folds the wolf-packs boldened by hunger,
Who would now lighten the day with the sound of his talk or his
singing 1
"Go un pastured, my lambs: your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Win mi shall I trust with my thoughts ; or who will teach me to deaden
Heart-hid pains ; or who will cheat away the long evening
Sweetly with chat by the fire, where hissing hot on the ashes
Roasts the ripe pear, and the chestnuts crackle beneath, while the
South-wind
Hurls confusion without, and thunders down on the elm-tops?
88 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Then, in the summer, when day spins round on his middlemost axle,
What time Pan takes his sleep concealed in the shade of the beeches,
And when the nymphs have repaired to their well-known grots in
the rivers,
Shepherds are not to be seen and under the hedge snores the rustic,
Who will bring me again thy blandishing ways and thy laughter,
All thy Athenian jests, and all the fine wit of thy fancies 1
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Now all lonely I wander over the fields and the pastures,
Or where the branchy shades are densest down in the valleys ;
There I wait till late, while the shower and the storm-blast above me
Moan at their will, and sighings shake through the breaks of the
woodlands.
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Ah ! how my fields, once neat, are now overgrown and unsightly,
Forward only in weeds, and the tall corn sickens with mildew !
Mateless, my vines droop down the shrivelled weight of their
clusters ;
Neither please me my myrtles ; and even the sheep are a trouble ;
They seem sad, and they turn their faces, poor things, to their
master !
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Tityrus l calls to the hazels ; to the ash-trees Alphesiboeus ;
JEtgon suggests the willows : ' The streams,' says lovely Amyntas ;
' Here are the cool springs, here the moss-broidered grass and the
hillocks ;
' Here are the zephyrs, and here the arbutus whispers the ripple.'
These things they sing to the deaf ; so I took to the thickets and
left them.
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Mopsus addressed me next, for he had espied me returning
(Wise in the language of birds, and wise in the stars too, is Mopsus) :
1 Tityrus, Alphesiboeus, &c., are all had particular acquaintances of his in
the names of shepherds in Virgil's EC- view under these names,
logues. Milton may, or may not, have
1639-40.] IJ'ITM'Hir.M /*.lM<>y/K 89
'Thyrsis,' he said, 'what is this? what bilious humour afflicts
thee?
* Either love is the cause, or the blast of some star inauspicious ;
* Saturn's star is of all the oftenest deadly to shepherds,
* Fixing deep in the breast his slant leaden shaft of sickness.'
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Round me fair maids wonder. ' What will come of thee, Thyrsis ?
* What wouldst thou have ? ' they say : * not commonly see we the
young men
* Wearing that cloud on the brow, the eyes thus stern and the
visage :
* Youth seeks the dance and sports, and in all will tend to be
wooing :
* Rightfully so : twice wretched is he who is late in his loving.'
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Dryope came, and Hyas, and ^Egle, the daughter of Baucis
(Learned is she in the song and the lute, but O what a proud
one !) ;
Came to me Chloris also, the maid from the banks of the Chelmer.
Nothing their blandishings move me, nothing their prattle of
comfort ;
Nothing the present can move me, nor any hope of the future.1
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Ah me ! how like one another the herds frisk over the meadows,
All, by the law of their kind, companions equally common ;
No one selecting for friendship this one rather than that one
Out of the flock ! So come in droves to their feeding the jackals ;
So in their turns pair also the rough untameable zebras.
Such too the law of the deep, where Proteus down on the shingle
Numbers his troops of sea-calves. Nay, that meanest of wing'd ones,
See how the sparrow has always near him a fellow, when flying
Round by the barns he chirrups, but seeks his own thatch ere it
darkens ;
Whom should fate strike lifeless — whether the beak of the falcon
1 The feminine names here used are fluenti ") may bo a real person. The
also from the old JKH.-U. The Chloris Cholmor it* in Essex ; and its influx into
inuiitiiineil u.s " the maid from the tanks the sea is by Blackwater Bay, which is
«if tin- Clu-lmcr" (which seems to IMJ called by Ptolemy (says Warton) PuHut
the tran-!ati..n >icina Idumuuiu*.
90 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Pin him in air, or he lie transfixed by the reed of the ditcher —
Quick the survivor is off, and a moment finds him remated.
We are the hard race, we, the battered children of fortune,
We of the breed of men, strange-minded and different-moulded !
Scarcely does any discover his one true mate among thousands ;
Or, if kindlier chance shall have given the singular blessing,
Comes a dark day on the creep, and comes the hour unexpected,
Snatching away the gift, and leaving the anguish eternal.
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Ah ! what roaming whimsy drew my steps to a distance,
Over the rocks hung in air and the Alpine passes and glaciers !
Was it so needful for me to have seen old Rome in her ruins —
Even though Rome had been such as, erst in the days of her
greatness,
Tityrus,1 only to visit, forsook both his flocks and his country—
That but for this I consented to lack the dear use of thy presence,
Placing so many seas and so many mountains between us,
So many woods and rocks and so many murmuring rivers 1
Ah ! at the end at least to have touched his hand had been given
me,
Closed his beautiful eyes in the placid hour of his dying,
Said to my friend, ' Farewell ! in the world of the stars think of
me ! '
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Albeit also of you my memory never shall weary,
Swains of the Tuscan land, well-practised youths in the Muses,
Here there was grace and lightness ; Tuscan thou too, my Damon,
Tracing the line of thy race from the ancient city of Lucca !
O, how mighty was I, when, stretched by the stream of the Arno
Murmuring cool, and where the poplar-grove softens the herbage,
Violets now I would pluck, and now the sprigs of the myrtle,
Hearing Menalcas and Lycidas vying the while in their ditties !
/ also dared the challenge ; nor, as I reckon, the hearers
1 In Virgil's first Eclogue, the shep- Milton's line (line 115 of Epitaphium)
herd Tityrus relates his visit to Rome, ,« ^ . ,
and the impression which the vastness "^fiV^ '*
of the city made on his rustic mind.
Tityrus, in that Eclogue, represents is all but a quotation of the 27th line
Virgil himself ; so that Milton's mean- of Virgil's Eclogue, where Meliboeus
ing here is ' ' Was it so needful for me to asks Tityrus,
go to see Rome even if Rome had still « Et qu£e tanta fuifc Romam tibi
been the great Rome of Virgils days ? " causa videndi ? "
1639-40.] KI'ITM'HII'M DAMONIS. 91
Greatly disliked my trials — for yet the tokens are with me,
Rush-plaits, osier nets, and reed-stops of wax, which they gave me.
Ay more : two of the group have taught our name to their beech-
woods —
Dati and also Francini, both of them notable shepherds,
As well in lore as in voice, and both of the blood of the Lydian.1
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
Then too the pleasant dreams which the dewy moon woke within
me,
Penning the young kids alone within their wattles at even !
Ah ! how often I said, when already the black mould bewrapt thee,
* Now my Damon is singing, or spreading his snares for the leveret ;
* Now he is weaving his twig-net for some of his various uses.'
What with my easy mind I hoped as then in the future
Lightly I seized with the wish and fancied as present before me.
' Ho, my friend ! ' I would cry : ' art busy ? If nothing prevent
thee,
1 Shall we go rest somewhere in some talk-favouring covert,
1 Or to the waters of Colne, or the fields of Cassibelaunus ? 2
' There thou shalt run me over the list of thy herbs and their
juices,
* Foxglove, and crocuses lowly, and hyacinth-leaf with its blossom,
4 Marsh-plants also that grow for use in the art of the healer." 3
Perish the plants each one, and perish all arts of the healer
Gotten of herbs, since nothing served they even their master !
/ too — for strangely my pipe for some time past had been sounding
Strains of an unknown strength — 'tis one day more than eleven since
Thus it befell — and perchance the reeds I was trying were new ones :
Bursting their fastenings, they flew apart when touched, and no
farther
Thin is a distinct reference to the are in the neighbourhood of St. Alban's,
two written encomiums on Milton by Hurts.
the Florentines Dati and Francini, » The allusion is to Diodati's profes-
which ho brought with him from Italy, sion of medicine and his knowledge of
and afterwards published. See Vol. I. botany. The reference in Comtu to the
-785. 1 have no doubt that the " shephord-lad " who is well skilled in
" rush -plait«,"i" reed-stops of wax," Ac., every virtuous plant and healing herb,
are |>oetical names for little presents and to whoso friendship the guardian
actually received from hia Florentine spirit Thyn»i« professes to owe his
i' • '"'-• knowlodgeof the divine plant Hasmony,
by the use of which the enchantment is
The Come flows by Uorton and Coin- broken, is supposed to be a compliment
brook: the fields of the old British to the then living Diodati. Compare
' aasibelaunus, who opposed Cesar, the passage, Com in 618—648.
92 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Dared to endure the grave sounds : I am haply in this over-boastful ;
Yet I will tell out the tale. Ye woods, yield your honours and
listen ! l
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
/ have a theme of the Trojans cruising our southern headlands
Shaping to song, and the realm of Imogen, daughter of Pandras,
Brennus and Arvirach, dukes, and Bren's bold brother, Belinus ;
Then the Armorican settlers under the laws of the Britons,
Ay, and the womb of Igraine fatally pregnant with Arthur,
Uther's son, whom he got disguised in Gorlois' likeness,
All by Merlin's craft.2 O then, if life shall be spared me,
Thou shalt be hung, my pipe, far off on some brown dying pine-tree,
Much forgotten of me ; or else your Latian music
Changed for the British war-screech ! What then ? For one to do
all things,
One to hope all things, fits not ! Prize sufficiently ample
Mine, and distinction great (unheard of ever thereafter
Though I should be, and inglorious, all through the world of the
stranger),
If but yellow-haired Ouse shall read me, the drinker of Alan,
Humber, which whirls as it flows, and Trent's whole valley of orchards,
Thames, my own Thames, above all, and Tamar's western waters,
Tawny with ores, and where the white waves swinge the far Orkneys.
" Go unpastured, my lambs : your master now heeds not your
bleating.
These I was keeping for thee, wrapt up in the rind of the laurel,
These and other things with them ; and mainly the two cups which
Manso —
Manso, not the last of Southern Italy's glories —
Gave me, a wonder of art, which himself, a wonder of nature,
Carved with a double design of his own well-skilled invention :
Here the Red Sea in the midst, and the odoriferous summer,
1 Observe, in the few preceding lines, British princes of a much later age,
the studied abruptness and hesitation sons of King Dunwallo Molmutius ;
with which Milton passes from the men- Arvirach or Arviragus, son of Cuno-
tion of Diodati's art and profession to beline, or Cymbeline, belongs to the
the thought of his own poetic art and time of the Roman conquest of Britain ;
literary pursuits. the "Armorican settlers" are the Bri-
2 In the British legends of Geoffrey tons who remove to the French coast
of Monmouth and others, the mythical of Armorica to avoid the invading
Brutus, before arriving in Britain with Saxons ; Uther Pendragon, Igraine, Gor-
his Trojans, marries Imogen, daughter lois, Merlin, and Arthur are familiar
of the Grecian king Pandrasus ; Bren- names of the Arthurian romances.
nus and Belinus are two legendary
1639-40.] A7V7M /'////'.I/ //.IJ/o.V/>. 93
Araby's winding shores, and palm-trees sweating their balsams,
Mid which the bird divine, earth's marvel, the singular Phoenix,
Blazing caerulean-bright with wings of different colours,
Turns to behold Aurora surmounting the glassy-green billows :
Obverse is Heaven's vast vault and the great Olympian mansion.
Who would suppose it ? Even here is Love and his cloud-painted
quiver,
Arms glittering torch-lit, and arrows tipped with the fire-gem.
Nor is it meagre souls and the base-born breasts of the vulgar
Hence that he strikes; but, whirling round him his luminous
splendours,
Always he scatters his darts right upwards sheer through the star-
depths
Restless, and never deigns to level the pain of them downwards ;
Whence the sacred minds and the forms of the gods ever-burning.1
"Thou too art there — not vain is the hope that I cherish, my
Damon —
Thou too art certainly there; for whither besides could have
vanished
Holy-sweet fancies like thine, and purity stainless as thine was ?
No ; not down in Lethe's darkness ought we to seek thee !
Tears are not fitting for thee, nor for thee will we weep any longer ;
Flow no more, ye tear-drops ! Damon inhabits the ether ;
Pure, he possesses the sky ; he has spurned back the arc of the
rainbow.
Housed mid the souls of the heroes, housed mid the gods everlast-
ing,
Quaffs he the sacred chalices, drinks he the joys of the blessed,
Holy-mouthed himself. But O, Heaven's rights being now thine,
Be thou with me for my good, however I ought to invoke thee,
Whether still as our Damon, or whether of names thou wouldst
rather
That of Diodati 2 now, by which deep-meaning divine name
All the celestials shall know thee, while shepherds shall still call
thee Damon.
For that the rosy blush and the unstained strength of young
manhood
i I have no doubt that the whole of him (Vol. I. p. 819). Where are they
this passage is a poetical description of now ?
the designs on an actual pair of cups * The name Diodati ("God-given"),
or chased goblets which Milton had as is proved hero and also in one of the
received as a keepsake from Manso at Italian HonneU, was pronounced, as
Naples, and hod brought homo with correctly it ought to bo, ttiod&ti.
94 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Ever were dear to thee, and the marriage-joy never was tasted,
Lo ! there are kept for thee the honours of those that were virgin !
Thou, with thy fair head crowned with the golden, glittering
cincture,
Waving green branches of palm, and walking the gladsome pro-
cession,
Aye shalt act and repeat the endless heavenly nuptials,
There where song never fails and the lyre and the dance mix to
madness,
There where the revel rages and Sion's thyrsus beats time." 1
Let the reader, before leaving this remarkable poem, re-
peruse the particular passage, near the end, beginning with
the words, " / too— for strangely my pipe for some time past"
and extending through the next twenty-four lines. That
passage is pregnantly autobiographical. Taken in connexion
with other passages in Milton's writings, it informs us as to
the nature of his occupations and projects, not only at the
moment when the poem was written — i.e. in September or
October 1639, — but also for a good many months afterwards.
In Milton's treatise entitled The Reason of Church Govern-
ment, published in January or February 1641-2, there is a
passage in which he refers to the good opinion uniformly
pronounced on his earlier writings, whether in prose or verse,
whether in English or Latin, by friends at home, and more
especially to the favourable reception of some trifles of his in
the private Academies of Italy, and the quite unusual
encomiums with which he, an unknown Englishman, had
been honoured during his tour by Italian scholars of note.
What interests us now is the statement of the passage
respecting the effect produced on Milton's mind by those
friendly opinions and encomiums. " I began," he says, " thus
" far to assent both to them [his Italian critics] and divers of
" my friends here at home, and not less to an inward
" prompting which now grew daily upon me, that by labour
" and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this
" life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might
1 The "thyrsus" was the ivy- wreathed orgies of Bacchus. The close of the
spear carried by the revellers in the poem in such a strain is very daring.
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS. 95
" perhaps leave something so written to after-times as they
" should not willingly let it die."
That this thought had been stirring in him even while he
was in Italy, and that he had then, moreover, felt a fascination
towards one particular subject as fit for a great poem, appears
from his Latin poem of compliment to Manso in Naples
(see Vol. I. pp. 816 — 819). Speaking of the long celebrity
of that nobleman as a patron of letters, and especially of his
kindness to the poets Tasso and Marini, Milton had said : —
" O were it mine to have granted me such a friend in the future,
One that had known so well to honour the sons of Apollo,
If I shall ever revoke into song the Kings of our Island,
Arthur yet from his underground hiding stirring to warfare,
Or shall tell of those that sat round him as Knights of his Table,
Great-souled heroes unmatched, and (O might the spirit but aid me !)
Shiver the Saxon phalanxes under the shock of the Britons ! "
What have we here but an intimation, written at Naples,
that Milton, then beginning seriously to meditate with him-
self what might be his future career in literature, was turning
over in his mind some vague scheme of a heroic poem, the
subject of which should be taken from the British Arthurian
legends ? It is interesting to have it thus recorded by him-
self that he had been fascinated by the very subject to which,
as by an indestructible transmitted instinct of the British
imagination, our greatest English poets of every age, from
Chaucer to Tennyson, have reverted so fondly. In his first
fancies as to the nature of that great intended work of his
which, if he succeeded in it, posterity should not willingly let
die, he had thought of nothing so likely as a poem the hero
ut 'which should be the British Arthur.
So much appears even from the poem to Manso. But now
connect the passage in that poem, and the passage cited from
The Reason of Church Government, with the passage in the
•i ih in i a Damonis to which we have requested attention.
That passage shows that Milton, after his return to England,
not only still retained his notion of a subject from British
legendary history, but was revolving the subject deliberately
96 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
with a view to its treatment. He was even preluding in it.
Observe the peculiar manner in which he announces this. He
has been speaking of Diodati's profession, — of his promising
career in that profession, so suddenly cut short by a fate
against which medical knowledge had been of no avail ;
and then, very abruptly, he breaks out " / too — for strangely
my pipe for some time past had been sounding. . . ." The con-
nexion of thought evidently is, " I too have a profession, if
it may be so called ; and what is the career that lies before
me in it, now that my companion is gone ? " He goes on
to tell of something that he has in contemplation. He
hesitates about telling it, and makes the hesitation apparent
in the broken structure of the syntax and verse for a line or
two. It is some time, he says, since " his pipe has been
sounding strains of an unknown strength," — i.e. since he has
been conscious of a seeking after some higher and greater
theme for his muse than he had yet ventured upon ; and
only eleven days before his then writing a strange thing had
happened. He had actually made a beginning in the new
direction ! Only a beginning, however ; for the " new reeds "
he was trying had burst asunder almost at the first touch, in-
capable all at once of the graver sounds that were expected
from them ! Still he had not given up his idea. Shall he
tell what it is ? Yes, though it may seern over-boastful, he
will :-
" / have a theme of the Trojans cruising our southern headlands
Shaping to song," &c.
And so on he proceeds, through the next seventeen lines,
explaining, in language the most precise, that he is busy over
the scheme of a heroic poem which, beginning with the
arrival of the mythical Brutus and his Trojans in Albion,
shall somehow include the whole cycle of the old British
legends, as told by Geoffrey of Monmouth and others, down
to the romance of Merlin and Arthur.
In addition to this, the main purport of the passage, there
is an incidental piece of information. It is that the in-
tended poem is to be in English, and that, indeed, he has
now, for all the main purposes of poetry, taken leave of the
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS. 97
Latin. Should he be spared for his great task, he says, then
his old pipe, which had served him so long, would be hung
up, forgotten, on some aged pine-tree, or its wonted Latian
music would have to be exchanged for the British war-
screech. There might be cause for regret in having thus to
part with an old instrument ! What then ? For one man to
excel in all things was impossible, and he had made his
choice. It would be for him a prize sufficiently great, and
ample enough distinction, if, remaining altogether unread by
the foreigner, he could have his own fellow-countrymen for his
audience, and could think of himself as read, or to be read,
along the streams and coasts of his own dear Island, from the
Channel to the Orkneys, and most of all where the Thames
of his boyhood washed his native London. What have we
here but an intimation that Milton, even in his comparatively
late day, had debated with himself the question which Dante
and other Italians had debated and similarly decided, so
long before ? Whether was it better for a modern poet to
continue the use of Latin for such higher works of genius
as he might undertake, and so have the security, as it then
appeared, of a learned European audience; or was it better to
adopt his own vernacular, and commit himself to its unascer-
tained and narrower, but more heart-stirring, chances ? That
Milton had discussed this question we are authentically
informed by himself, not only in the Epitaphium Damonis,
but also, as we shall find, in express prose.
So far, therefore, we are able to represent to ourselves
distinctly enough the state of Milton's mind at that begin-
ning of the winter of 1639-40, when, entering on the thirty -
third year of his age, he found himself again in England.
Having resumed the acquaintance of his English friends, and
recovered from the first shock of Diodati's death, he was
settling down to that life of purely intellectual labour, —
the life of a man of letters, as we should now call it, —
which he had selected as the most suitable for him in the
conditions of England at that time, and which the kindness
of his father made possible.
VOL. II II
98 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
That Milton, in settling himself for such a life, should
leave Horton, and make London his head-quarters, will
not seem unnatural. He had contemplated the removal
before going abroad, as appears from his letter to Diodati
of the 23rd of September 1637, in which he had spoken of
looking out for chambers in one of the Inns of Court. Now,
however, there were family-circumstances that made an
arrangement of the kind convenient. To understand what
these were, we must reintroduce Milton's only sister, Anne,
whom we saw married as long ago as 1624 to Mr. Edward
Phillips of the Crown Office, in Chancery, and on the death
of whose first-born, an infant girl, in the severe winter of
1625-6, Milton, then a Cambridge undergraduate, had written
the verses beginning " 0 fairest flower, no sooner blown than
blasted. " Since then we have had but incidental glimpses
of her, — the last being in April 1637, when we found her as
probably in attendance on her old and invalid father at Horton
at the time of her mother's death, but then no longer known
as Mrs. Phillips, but as Mrs. Agar, in consequence of her
marriage with a second husband. This double marriage of
Milton's sister becomes of some consequence now ; and the
facts have to be recapitulated.
Her first husband, Edward Phillips, had died in the autumn
of 1631, after she had been united to him only seven years.
The proof is in the following Will and its attached Probate,
which I found long ago in the Prerogative Court of Canter-
bury : —
"In the name of God, Amen: The twelveth day of August, one
thousand, six hundred, thirty-one, and in the seaventli yeare of the
raigne of our soveraigne Lord, King Charles, of England, &c., I,
Edward Phillips, of London, gentleman, being weak in bodie, but
of good and perfect memory, thanks bee to the Lord therefore, doe
make this my last Will and Testament in manner and forme follow-
ing, vizt. — First, I bequeath my soul into the hands of Allmiglitie
God : my bodie I comitt unto the earth from whence it came, when
it shall please God to make a separation between my bodie and my
soule, hoping at the last day, through, the meritts of Christ, myne
onelie Savyour, it shall rise againe a glorious bodie and bee united
unto my soule to live in Heaven eternally. And, for such worldly
estate as the Lord, of his mercy, hath given mee, I bequeath as
1639-40.] MILTON'S SISTER AND HIS TWO NKPIIKWS. 90
followeth : — Whereas there is an Inventory of such good* and
chattelJs as were left by my deceased father with my mother for her
use, my Will is that these goods and chattells after my mother's
decease shall bee devyded to and amongst my brothers and sisters
then living ; and, if such goods and chattells shall not then come
to the sume of fourescore pounds, being indifferently praysed, then
I desire, my loving wife Anne to make it upp soe much that
my said brothers and sisters, being foure now lyving, may have
twcntie pounds apeece after my mother's decease. The rest and
residue of all and singular my goods, chattells, debts, loaned,
household stuff, and all other things, I give and bequeeth unto my
said loving wife Anne, whom I make executrix of this my last
Will. In witnesse whereof I have hereunto sett my hand and
scale, the day and yeare first above written. — Signed, sealed, de-
livered and published by the said EDWARD PHILLIPS, as and for his
last Will and Testament in the presence of Jo : MILTON, —
I 1 KM: 1 1: ROTH WELL, servant to the said Jo : Milton."
The probate by the oath of administration taken by the
executrix is dated the 12th of September 1631. Phillips
must therefore have died in the course of the preceding
month. He would seem to have been then still a compara-
tively young man, as his mother is mentioned as living. His
widow, at all events, cannot have been more than nine-and-
twenty years of age, and may have been but four- and -
twenty.1 Although no children are mentioned in the Will,
she was left with two out of several born after the little
" fairest flower " who had first died. These were two boys :
the elder, called Edward after his father, born in August
1630, and therefore only a year old;2 and the younger
probably not yet born, but who, when he did appear, was
called John, after his grandfather and uncle.8
During her first husband's life the residence of Mrs.
Phillips had been " in the Strand, near Charing Cross, in the
Lilx-rty of Westminster," conveniently near to the Crown
Office. As she had received " a considerable dowry " from
her father on her marriage,4 and as the property left her
by her husband seems to have amounted to a considerable
increase upon that, it is not unlikely that she continued to
live in this house with her two boys during the first years
» See Vol. I. p. 89. * Wood : loc. cit.
iwanl Phillips; Lifo of Mill..,,, 4 E,Jwar,i Phillipa; Life of Milton.
an.l Wood'a Athon. IV. 760.
100 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
of her widowhood, though occasionally visiting her father
and mother at Horton. But Mrs. Phillips's widowhood was
not of very long duration. A colleague in the Crown Office
with her late husband, the "intimate friend" of that
husband so long as he lived, and the successor of that
husband after his death in the post of " secondary " in the
office, — i.e. of Deputy Clerk of the Crown under Thomas
Willys, Esq., the chief clerk, — was a certain Thomas Agar,
said to have been educated (but I cannot ascertain on what
authority) at St. Paul's School, about, or somewhat before,
the time when Milton was there. This Thomas Agar, when
he succeeded to his friend Phillips's post in the Crown Office,
was himself a married man, — his wife being a Mary Rugeley,
daughter of Dr. Thomas Eugeley, a highly esteemed London
physician of that day. This wife was certainly alive in
1633, by which time she had borne to Agar a daughter
named Ann. But, at some subsequent date which I have not
been able precisely to determine, she died, leaving Agar a
widower. When he thought of marrying again, it seems to
have been in every way a suitable arrangement that he and
the widow of his friend Phillips should come together. So,
at all events, it happened. Mrs. Phillips became Mrs. Agar,
and had two daughters in this, her second marriage, one
named Mary and the other Ann, half-sisters of her two little
Phillipses by the first marriage.1
For at least a year before Milton went abroad on his
Italian tour, his effective brother-in-law as we have seen
(ante Vol. I. pp. 637-8) had been Mr. Thomas Agar. What-
ever may have been Phillips's personal merits, there had been
no loss to the family, in point of worldly respectability, by
his widow's second marriage. As the Clerk of the Crown's
deputy, Agar, like Phillips before him, had to be in frequent
attendance on the Lord Keeper, to administer oaths of alle-
giance to new Chancery officials, to see to the issue of royal
proclamations and of commissions of the peace and the like,
1 So far as the particulars in this a Heralds' visitation, of London 1633-4,
paragraph are not gathered from Ed- given in Harl. MS. 1476, f. 152, and
ward Phillips's own account in his Life (2) a memoir of the physician Kugeley
of Milton, or from Wood's Lives of the in No. 2149 of the Ayscough MSS.
two Phillipses in his Athetue (IV. 760, et which consists of memoirs of English
seq.), they are the fruit of very miscel- physicians of the seventeenth century,
laneous researches, which led me to (1) by a Baldwin Harvey, who died 1676,
a pedigree of the Rugeley family, in
1639-40.] MILTON'S SISTER AND HIS TWO NEPHEWS. 101
and also to the issue (though as yet Agar had had no taste of
this peculiar duty of his office) of new Parliamentary writs.
Much of his handwriting is still to be seen in what I believe
is the oldest book of office-business that has been preserved
in the Crown Office, — a book of entries of administrations of
oaths by the Clerk of the Crown or his deputy from 1639
onwards ; and I have found his handwriting also in receipts
that had been issued from the Crown Office to the King's
printer for so many copies, delivered into the office, of such
and such royal proclamations.1 For convenient attendance
upon these duties, Agar must have had his house in the
same neighbourhood, of Westminster or the Strand, in which
Phillips had resided. If his brother-in-law, the poet, was in
the habit of looking in here, there was a chance of his ex-
tending his acquaintance by the addition of Agar's relatives
by his first marriage, the Rugeleys, with whom I have proof
that Agar still kept up a very close connexion. Among these
was the old physician Rugeley himself, and his three sons,
Thomas, Luke, and George, the eldest of whom had entered
his father's profession with good hopes of success.2
Milton's resolution, in the winter of 1639-40, to take up
his abode definitely in London, seems to have fitted in with
his sister Mrs. Agar's views as to the education of her two
little sons by her first marriage. " Soon after his return,"
says Edward, the elder of these Phillipses, in his life of his
uncle, " he took him a lodging in St. Bride's Churchyard, at
" the house of one Russel, a tailor, where he first undertook
" the education and instruction of his sister's two sons, the
" younger whereof had been wholly committed to his charge
" and care." This seems to mean that, while, by the arrange-
1 By the courtesy of the authorities are mentioned in the text.
of the Crown Office I had access to the * The proof of the continued oon-
ropords there, to search for traces of nexion of Agar with the Rugeleys is
Milton's brothers-in-law. The earliest from Agar's will, found by mo at Doc-
office-book being, as I have stated in tors' Commons, and which need not at
the text, one commencing with the present be cited for more than the fact
year 1639, I could find no traces of that so late as 1671 very affectionate
rhillipH'Hhand ; but in that book Agar's mention is made by Agar of one of the
appeared sufficiently. lit the Bntish Rugeleys as his life-long friend. The
MuHeum also (Arid. MSS. 5756, ff. 128 older physician Rugeley died Juno 21,
ft **/.), I found at least fifteen sped- 1656, and wo* buried in St. Bntolph's
mens of Agar's handwriting in the Church, Aldersgate (MS. Ayscough,
form of such Crown-Office receipts as 2149).
102 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
ment of their mother and stepfather, both the boys were to
receive lessons from their uncle in his lodging in St. Bride's
Churchyard, the younger, who was his godson or nameson,
was either to stay with him entirely, or, in some particular
way, to be under his complete control and tuition. The little
Johnny Phillips, so made over to his uncle's care, was only
eight years of age ; and his brother Edward, who was to share
his lessons, was not much over nine. For a bachelor, living
in lodgings, the arrangement might not seem the most con-
venient ; but, whether for family reasons or on personal
grounds, Milton appears to have made no difficulty about it.
Leaving his father, with Christopher and Christopher's wife,
at Horton, he took up his quarters, for a time at least, in
the tailor's house in St. Bride's Churchyard. While Phillips
gives the locality simply as " St. Bride's Churchyard," sub-
sequent biographers have generally called it " St. Bride's
Churchyard, Fleet Street." But Wood says " St. Bride's
Churchyard, near Fleet Street " ; and in the old maps I find
the site of at least a portion of St. Bride's Churchyard
marked as in that part of the present Farringdon Street
which lies between Fleet Lane and Stonecutters' Street. Near
the foot of the present Fleet Street, at all events, in rather
close vicinity to Fleet Ditch, but with the river on one
hand, and in view of Ludgate Hill, old St. Paul's, and the
whole City region of his native Bread Street, did Milton, in
the winter of 1639-40, enter upon a new period of his life.
The teaching of the two boys cannot have been so en-
grossing an occupation but that there was ample time for
those studies and literary preparations of Milton's own to
which he had resolved now strenuously to betake himself.
With a view to these studies and preparations, he had his
books, though not all of them, brought to his new lodging,
and here also he surrounded himself once more with his
private papers and manuscripts. Among the manuscripts on
which he would set most value were those which contained
the rough drafts or copies of his own compositions. One or
two of them had been published, and were so far safe, — in
1639-40.] LODGING IN ST. BRIDE'S CHURCHYARD.
103
especial, the very best of them, Comus and Lycidas ; and copies
of some of the others, doubtless, had been given to friends
in manuscript. Still it was not unimportant that his own
copies or original drafts should be carefully preserved. We
have already had evidence that Milton proceeded on this
principle, and, however much he erased or altered, rarely or
never destroyed anything he had once written. In St. Bride's
Churchyard, accordingly, we may assume that he had the
copies or drafts beside him, in his own hand, of all that he had
then written. Not, perhaps, in a shapely condition in one
fairly- transcribed book, but in various books as they had
been originally penned, or in loose sheets and papers. We
have the means of knowing, however, that there was one
book, or continuous set of sheets of the same folio-sized
paper, of which Milton made particular use about this time.
This was a book, or set of sheets already partly occupied
with the original drafts of four of the little pieces of his
Cambridge period, — the Song At a Solemn Mustek, the
" Letter to a Friend " and accompanying Sonnet on being
arrived to the age of Twenty-three, and the verses On Time
and Upon the Circumcision, — and with the more important
original drafts of the Arcades, Comus, and Lycidas. It
was of a blank space in this book, immediately following the
draft of Lycidas, or on some vacant sheets of this set, after-
wards numbered and attached to the others in that order,
that he proceeded to avail himself for the purpose of such new
scribblings as he first found occasion for after he had settled
in his new lodging. The proof remains in the scribblings
themselves. They form part of that volume of Milton's
manuscripts which has long been one of the most precious
treasures of the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge.1
1 This volume, kept under a glass
we aa one of the most valuable curio-
of the Library, is a thin folio,
bound in rod morocco and inscribed
»D the back in gilt letters " Potmata
" (" Manuscript
Poems of Milton ). Inside is pasted
this account of the volume :
Coll. Cantab. : Membra kofc entdi-
• el pcfM dirini podae, olim mitert
disjecta el jxusim tjntrta, fXMtoa verdfor-
n nit m denuo collect*
cjtu Coll. »ncio, et
tutto invtnta et in
• Carolo Mourn,
inter Mixtllanea repot Un, df incept ed
tntd Atcu.it rflii/toMteriurivoi*ti Thomat
Clarke, nujterriml kvjutce Collegii, HUHC
Templi, Londini, focitu :
1736" ("Library of Trinity College,
Cambridge : These fragments of the
most learned and all but divine pott,
formerly miserably separated and scat-
tered about, but afterwards accidentally
104 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
An examination of the book, and of seven of its pages in
particular, furnishes us with the means of far more exact
information than was to be hoped for respecting the course of
Milton's literary plans and studies, not only after his first
removal to St. Bride's Churchyard, but also, as I believe,
during the whole term of his residence there, and for some
time beyond.
Milton, it appears, either found reason very soon to
abandon his scheme of a heroic poem of legendary British
History, or was not so pledged to that scheme but that he
would let his mind range for a time among other schemes,
with a view at last to the discovery of the truly splendid
one to which his heart would leap. A subject of British
History still seemed to him to satisfy most of the conditions ;
but might there not be grander scope, for one whose notions
of the true end and duty of all literature were so high and
solemn as his were, in some Scriptural subject ? Again, the
epic form was a noble one, and precedents in that form were
among the noblest ; but what if the dramatic, or some com-
bination of the dramatic and the lyric, should be the fittest ?
What we see in the seven pages of the Cambridge MSS. to
found and at length collected into one by of some distinction in the reign of
Charles Mason, Fellow of that College, James I. and tutor to Prince Henry,
and placed among its Miscellanies, Tho- He was born about 1617, was educated
mas Clarke, very lately Fellow of the at Trinity College, assumed the name
College, but now of the Middle Temple, of Puckering about the middle of the
London, desired to have preserved with seventeenth century (after his mater-
the respect due to them : 1736."). The nal uncle, Sir Thomas Puckering of
Charles Mason, who thus first took the Warwickshire, son of Lord Keeper
pains to collect the fragments, gra- Puckering), and was known, during
duated B.A. in 1722, M.A. in 1726, and the latter half of the century, as a
was afterwards Doctor of Divinity and studious and ingenious gentleman.
Woodwardian Professor of Geology in He retained so strong affection for the
the University of Cambridge ; the College in which he had been educated,
Thomas Clarke, to whom belongs the and where a son of his who predeceased
farther honour of having seen them him had also studied, that, "in his
properly bound and taken care of, took eightieth year," according to Warton,
his B.A. degree in 1724, his M.A. in " he desired to be readmitted, and, re-
1728, and was afterwards Knight, and siding there a whole summer, presented
Master of the Rolls. But where did to the New Library, just then finished,
Mason find the fragments ? He found his own collection of books, amounting
them already in Trinity College, lying to near 4,000 volumes." This must
scattered among MSS. which had been have been about 1697, or three years
given to the College, many years before, before his death, which occurred Jan.
by a Sir Henry Newton Puckering, 22, 1700, in the 83rd year of his age
Baronet. This person, whose original (see his epitaph in Dugdale's Warwick-
name had been Henry Newton, was shire, by Thomas, I. 445).
the son of Sir Adam Newton, a man
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS. 105
which we have just referred is precisely this interesting
phenomenon of Milton discussing the best form for his great
work, and seeking about for a subject. Or, rather, it seems
to have been already determined by him that the/orm should
be that of a Tragedy with a chorus, after the ancient Greek
model, and the hesitation seems to have been mainly as to
the subject for such a Tragedy. Should it be from Scripture,
or should it be from British History ; and, on either supposi-
tion, which subject out of all that might be found should be
selected ?
The method adopted by Milton in these circumstances is
very characteristic. He undertakes a course of continuous
reperusal of the historical parts of the Bible, with one or
two of the most learned commentators at hand for con-
sultation ; and at the same time he undertakes a continuous
perusal of the History of Britain Ijefore the Conquest, as
told in Ralph Holinshed's Chronicles (1st edit., 2 vols. fol.,
1577 ; 2nd edit. 2 vols. foL, 1586-7) and Speed's Chronicle
(1st edit, fol., 1611 ; 2nd edit. 1623 ; 3rd edit. 1632), but
with reference at successive points to the older Latin writers,
Bede, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and William of Malmesbury.
He reads rapidly, getting over a considerable portion every
day ; and steadily, as he reads, he jots down the subjects
that occur to him, sometimes in the form of brief notes or
mere headings, but at other times, when subjects arrest him
by their superior capability, in the form of detailed sketches
or draft-plans. In this manner he goes on, — sometimes turn-
ing back or setting down an afterthought, — till he has filled
seven pages with a list of about ninety-nine subjects in all,
of which sixty-one are Scriptural, and thirty-eight are from
British History. The following is a complete digest of this
list, in the most intelligible form I have been able to devise,
after much inspection of the closely-written and much-cor-
rected original, and with lithographed facsimiles of that
original before me.1 Every scrap of Milton's own penning
1 Them interesting facsimile* may number of copies were issued in 1861
be soon in tho Mplendid volume, entitled by the late Samuel Leigh Sothoby
"lititf.s in tho Elucidation of tho Mr. Sothoby, in addition to other
Autograph of Milton," of which a small specimen* of Milton's autograph, from
106 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
is preserved in the digest, and is placed within inverted
commas ; and all such matter follows, under each heading,
in the same order as in the original, save that subjects or
schemes that occurred to Milton as afterthoughts, and were
jotted down out of their proper chronological places, are
inserted in those places and distinguished by asterisks.
Whatever is without inverted commas, or is inserted within
brackets, is explanatory.
I. SCRIPTURAL SUBJECTS.
. I. FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT.
1. Paradise Lost. Of this subject there are four Drafts :
three of them continuous, and filling the first page of the Jottings
(numbered 35 in the volume), where they are written column-wise ;
and the fourth occurring as an afterthought on the 6th page of
the Jottings (numbered 40 in the volume).
(1) The first Draft consists merely of a list of dramatis personce,
as follows : — " The Persons : Michael ; Heavenly Love ; Chorus of
" Angels ; Lucifer ; Adam [and] Eve, with the Serpent ; Con-
" science ; Death ; Labour, Sickness, Discontent, Ignorance, with
" others, [as] Mutes ; Faith ; Hope ; Charity."
(2) The foregoing Draft having been erased by two cross strokes
of the pen, a second Draft, written parallel with it, takes its place,
as follows : — " The Persons : Michael or Moses [the words ' Michael
or ' are then deleted, so as to leave ' Moses ' as the preferable
Person for the Drama] ; Justice, Mercy, Wisdom ; Heavenly Love ;
" The Evening Star Hesperus ; Chorus of Angels ; Lucifer ; Adam ;
" Eve ; Conscience ; Labour, Sickness, Discontent, Ignorance, Fear,
" Death, [as] Mutes ; Faith ; Hope ; Charity."
(3) The foregoing having also been crossed out with the pen,
there follows a third Draft, which is more complete and is left
standing, as follows: — "Paradise Lost. The Persons: — Moses
irpoXoyi^ti [prologuises], recounting how he assumed his true body ;
that it corrupts not, because of his [being] with God in the
Mount ; declares the like of Enoch and Eliah, besides the purity
of the place — that certain pure winds, dews, and clouds preserve
it from corruption ; whence exhorts to the sight of God ; tells
they cannot see Adam in the state of innocence, by reason of their
sin. — [Act I.] Justice, Mercy, Wisdom, debating what should
the Cambridge volume and other Cambridge volume while he was about
sources, gives all the seven pages of it, and retrench the text of his book
Jottings in facsimile. It is a pity he in favour of that more mechanical
did not simply facsimile the whole reproduction.
1639-40.J I.ITKKAUV IKOJECTS : JOTTINGS OF SUBJECTS. 107
"become of Man it In tall. Chorus of Angels sing a hymn of
44 the Creation. — Act II. : Heavenly Love ; Evening Star ; Chorus
44 sing the marriage-song, and <k->< -rihe Paradise. — Act III. : Luci-
44 fer, contriving Adam's ruin ; Chorus fears for Adam and relates
44 Lucifer's rebellion and fall. — Act IV. : Adam, Eve, fallen ; Con-
44 science cites them to God's examination ; Chorus bewails and
44 tells the good Adam hath lost. — Act V. : Adam and Eve, driven
4 out of Paradise, presented by an Angel with Labour, Grief,
* Hatred, Envy, War, Famine, Pestilence, Sickness, Discontent,
4 Ignorance, Fear, [as] Mutes, to whom he gives their names ; like-
4 wise Winter, Heat, Tempest, «tc. ; Death, entered into the world ;
4 Faith, Hope, Charity comfort him and instruct him [Adam] ;
4 Chorus briefly conclude**
(4)* The fourth Draft, separated from the foregoing by several
pages, is as follows: — "Adam Unparadised: The Angel Gabriel,
" either descending or entering — showing, since this globe was
" created, his frequency as much on Earth as in Heaven— describes
44 Paradise. Next the Chorus, showing the reason of his coming
" — to keep his watch, after Lucifer's rebellion, by command from
44 God ; and withal expressing his desire to see and know more
44 concerning this excellent new creature, Man. The Angel
44 Gabriel, as by his name signifying a Prince of Power, tracing
44 Paradise with a more free office, passes by the station of the
4' Chorus, and, desired by them, relates what he knew of Man, as
44 the creation of Eve, with their love and marriage. — After this,
4i Lucifer appears after his overthrow, bemoans himself, seeks
44 revenge on Man. The Chorus prepare resistance at his first
44 approach. At last, after discourse of enmity on either side, he
44 departs ; whereat the Chorus sings of the battle and victory in
44 Heaven against him and his accomplices, as before, after the first
44 Act, was sung a hymn of the Creation. — Here again may appear
44 Lucifer, relating and insulting in what he had done to the
44 destruction of Man. Man next and Eve, having by this time
44 been seduced by the Serpent, appears confusedly, covered with
44 leaves. Conscience, in a shape, accuses him. Justice cites him
44 to the place whither Jehovah called for him. In the inean-
44 while the Chorus entertains the stage, and is informed by some
"Angel the manner of his Fall.— Here the Chorus bewails
" Adam's fall. Adam then, and Eve, return and accuse one another ;
44 but especially Adam lays the blame to his wife — is stubborn in
*4 his offence. Justice appears, reasons with him, convinces him.
44 The Chorus admonisheth Adam, and bids him beware by Lucifer's
44 example of impenitence. — The Angel is sent to banish them out
44 of Paradise ; but, before, causes to pass before his eyes, in shapes,
44 a masque of all the evils of this life and world. He is humbled,
44 relents, despairs. At last apprars Mercy, comforts him, promises
44 the Messiah; then calls in l-'uith. Hope, and Charity ; instructs
" him. He repents, gives God the glory, submits to his penalty.
108 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" The Chorus briefly concludes. Compare this with the former
" Draft."
'These three subjects are jotted
down together in a little space in
2. "Adam in Banishment
3. "The Flood"
4. " A bram in Egypt "
the same page with the first three
Drafts of Paradise Lost, under the
heading " Other Tragedies." Sub-
ject 3 is re-entered in the next
Vpage as " The Deluge"
5*. Abram from Morea, or Isaac Redeemed." This subject
appears as an afterthought, on the 5th page of the Jottings (num-
bered 39 in the volume), where this scheme accompanies the title :
"The oeconomy may be thus: — The fifth or sixth day after
" Abraham's departure, Eleazer, Abram's steward, first alone, and
" then with the Chorus, discourse of Abraham's strange voyage,
" their mistress's sorrow and perplexity, accompanied with fright-
" ful dreams ; and tell the manner of his rising by night, taking
" his servants and his son with him. Next may come forth Sarah
" herself after the Chorus, or Ismael, or Agar. Next, some
" shepherd or company of merchants, passing through the Mount
" in the time that Abram was in the mid-work, relate to Sarah
" what they saw : hence lamentations, fears, wonders. The matter
" in the meanwhile divulged, Aner or Eshcol or Mamre, Abram's
" confederates, come to the house of Abram to be more certain, or to
" bring news, in the meanwhile discoursing, as the world would, of
" such an action divers ways — bewailing the fate of so noble a man
" fallen from his reputation, either through divine justice, or supersti-
" tion, or coveting to do some notable act through zeal. At length a
" servant, sent from Abram, relates the truth ; and, last, he himself
" comes in with a great train of Melchizedek, whose shepherds, being
" secret eye-witnesses of all passages, had related to their master,
" and he conducted his friend Abraham home with joy."
6. "Sodom" This mere heading is inserted in its order at
the top of page 2 of the Jottings, but the subject is re-entered on
subsequent pages as follows : — * " Sodom (the title Cupids Funeral
" Pile [or] Sodom Burning). The scene before Lot's Gate. The
" Chorus consists of Lot's shepherds come to the city about some
" affairs. [They] await in the evening their master's return from
" his evening walk round toward the city-gates. He brings with
" him two young men, or youths, of noble form ; after likely dis-
" courses, prepares for their entertainment. By then supper is
" ended, the gallantry of the town pass by in procession with music
" and song to the temple of Venus Urania, or Peor ; and, under-
" standing of two noble strangers arrived, they send two of their
" choicest youth, with the priest, to invite them to their city-
" solemnities, it being an honour that their city had decreed to all
" fair personages, as being sacred to their goddess. The Angels,
" being asked by the priest whence they are, say they are of
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS: JOTTINGS OF SUBJECTS. 109
** Salem : the priest inveighs against the strict reign of Melchi-
"zedek. Lot, that knows their drift, answers thwartly at last.
11 Of which notice given to the whole assembly, they hasten thither,
" tax him of presumption, singularity, breach of city-customs ; in
" fine, offer violence. The Chorus of shepherds prepare resistance
" in their master's defence, calling the rest of the serviture ; but,
" [they] being forced to give back, the Angels open the door, rescue
" Lot, discover themselves, warn him to gather his friends and
" sons-in-law out of the city. He goes, and returns as having met
" with some incredulous. Some other friend, or son-in-law, out of
" the way when Lot came to his house, overtakes him to know
" his business. Here is disputed of incredulity of divine judgments,
" and such like matter. At last is described the i>arting from the
" city. The Chorus depart with their master. The Angels do the
" deed with all dreadful execution. The King and Nobles of the
" city may come forth and serve to set out the terror — a Chorus of
" Angels concluding, and the Angels relating the event of Lot's
"journey, and of his wife. The first Chorus, beginning, may
" relate the course of the city — each evening every one with
" mistress, or Ganymede, gitterning along the streets, or solacing on
" the banks of Jordan, or down the stream. At the priest's inviting
" the Angels to the solemnity, the Angels, pitying their beauty,
* may dispute of love, and how it differs from lust, seeking to win
* them. In the last scene, to the King and nobles, when the fierce
' thunders begin aloft, the Angel appears all girt with flames,
1 which he saith are the flames of true love, and tells the King,
1 who falls down with terror, his just suffering, as also Athane's
* (i.e. Gener, Lot's son-in-law), for despising the continual admo-
* nitions of Lot Then, calling to the thunders, lightning, and
' fires, he bids them hear the call and command of God to come
" and destroy a godless nation. He brings them down, with some
" short warning to other nations to take heed." [The impression,
inevitable at one or two points in this scheme, that Milton was
thinking, analogically, of London and England, is strengthened by
the fact that the last four sentences are additions, crammed in,
after the rest had been written, and in a smaller hand.]
7. "Dinah. Vide Euseb. Praeparat. Evang. 1. 9, c. 22. The
" Persons : Dinah ; Debora, Rebecca's Nurse ; Jacob ; Simeon ;
" Levi ; Hamor ; Sechem ; Counsellors 2 ; Nuncius ; Chorus."
8. " Thamar Cuephorwa [i.e. Thamar Pregnant] ; where Judah
" is found to have been the author of that crime which he con-
" demned in Thamar. Thamar excused in what she attempted."
9. " The Golden Calf, or the Massacre in Horeb."
10. "The Quails: Numb, xi."
11. " The Murmurers : Numb, xiv."
12. "Corah, Dathan, dr.: Numb. xvi. xvii."
13. " Moabitides : Numb, xxv." This subject, so occurring as a
heading in its natural order, is repeated on a subsequent page
110 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
thus : — * " Moabitides or Phineas : The epitasis whereof may lie in
" the contention first between the father of Zimri and Eleazer
" whether he [ought] to have slain his son without law — next, the
" ambassadors of the Moabites expostulating about Cosbi, a stranger
" and a noblewoman, slain by Phineas. It may be argued about
" reformation and punishment illegal, and, as it were, by tumult.
" After all arguments driven home, then the word of the Lord may
" be brought, acquitting and approving Phineas."
14. "Achan: Josua vii. and viii."
15. " Josuah in Gibeon: Josu. x."
16. " Gideon Idolodastes [i.e. Gideon the Idol -breaker] : Judg.
"vi. vii."
17. "Gideon Pursuing: Judg. viii."
18. " Abimelech the Usurper: Judg. ix."
19. "Samson Pursophorus or Hybristes [i.e. Samson the Fire-
" brand -bringer or Violent], or Samson Marrying , or Ramath-
" Lechi: Judg. xv."
20. " Dagonalia : Judg. xvi."
21. " Comazontes, or the Benjaminites, or the Rioters: Judg. xix.
" xx. xxi."
22. " Theristria : A Pastoral out of Ruth."
23. " Eliadce, Hophni and Phinehas : 1 Sam. i. ii. iii. iv. Begin-
" ning with the first overthrow of Israel by the Philistines, inter-
" laced with Samuel's vision concerning Eli's family."
24. "Jonathan Rescued: 1 Sam. i. 14."
25. " Doea Slandering : 1 Sarn. xxii."
26. " The Sheep-shearers in Carmel : A Pastoral : 1 Sam. xxv."
27. " Saul in Gilboa : 1 Sam. xxviii. xxx."
28. " David Revolted : 1 Sam., from the xxvii. chap, to the xxxi."
29. " David Adulterous : 2 Sam. xi. xii."
30. "Tamar: 2 Sam. xiii."
31. "Achitophel: 2 Sam. xv. xvi. xvii. xviii."
32. "Adoniah: 1 Kings ii."
33. "Solomon Gyncecocratumenos, or Idolomargus ; or Thysia-
" zusce [i.e. Solomon Women-governed, or Idol-mad ; or the Women-
" sacri/lcers], 1 Kings xi."
34. "Rehoboam: 1 Kings xii., where is disputed of a politic
" Religion."
35. " Abias Thersceus : 1 Kings xiv. The Queen, after much
" dispute, as the last refuge, sent to the prophet Ahias at Shilo ;
" receives the message. The epitasis in that she, hearing the child
" shall die as she comes home, refuses to return, thinking thereby
" to elude the oracle. The former part is spent in bringing the
" sick prince forth, as it were desirous to shift his chamber and
" couch, as dying men use — his father telling him what sacrifice he
" had sent for his health to Bethel and Dan. His fearlessness of
" death, and putting his father in mind to set to Ahiah. The Chorus
" of the Elders of Israel bemoaning his virtues bereft them, and at
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS : JOTTINGS OF SUBJECTS. 1 1 1
" another time wondering why Jeroboam, being bad himself,
" should so grieve for his son that was good, iV.
36. " Inibres, or the Showers : 1 Kings xviii. xix."
37. " Naboth trvKofavTov^vos [i.e. falsely-accused]: 1 Kings
"x.\
38. " Ahab : 1 Kings xxii. Beginning at the synod of false
" Prophets ; ending with relation of Ahab's death. His body
" brought ; Zedekiah slain by Ahab's friends for his seducing.
" (See Lavater, 2 Chron. xviii.) "
39. " Elias in the Mount : 2 Kings i. 'Opu^d-rip [the Mountain-
u Ranger] ; or, better, Elias Polemistes [the Warrior]."
40. " Elisceus Hydrochoos [Elisha, the Water-pourer] : 2 Kings
" iii : Hydrophantes [Water-Prophet] : Aquator"
41. "Elisceus Adorodocetos [the Incorruptible]."
42. " Elisceus Menutes [the Informer], sive in Dothaimis [in
" Dothan] : 2 Kings vi."
43. " Samaria Liberata [Samaria Delivered] : 2 Kings vii."
44. " Achabcei Cunoborwmani [devoured by dogs]: 2 Kings ix.
" The scene Jesrael. Beginning from the watchman's discovery of
" Jehu, till he go out. In the meanwhile message of things passing
" brought to Jezebel, <fcc. Lastly, the 70 heads of Ahab's sons
'* brought in, and message brought of Ahaziah's brethren slain on
" the way. Chap, x."
45. " Jehu Belicola [Jehu worshipping Baal] : 2 Kings x."
46. "Athaliah: 2 Kings xi."
47. " Amaziah Doryalotus [Captive of the spear] : 2 Kings xiv. ;
" 2 Chron. xxv."
48. " Hezechias 7roAio/>Koi'/Aci>os: Hezekiah Besieged: 2 Kings
" xviii. xix. The wicked hypocrisy of Shebna, spoken of in the
" XL, or thereabout, of Isaiah, and the commendation of Eliakim
" will afford a<£op/nas Aoyov [occasions for discourse], together with a
" faction that sought help from Egypt"
49. "Josiah Aiafo/xeros [Lamented] : 2 Kings xxiii."
50. " Zfdekiah vto-rtpifav [Revolutionising] : 2 Kings ; but the
" story is larger in Jeremiah."
51. " Salymun Ilalosis [the Taking of Jerusalem] : Which may
" begin from a message brought to the city of the judgment upon
" Zedekiah and his children in Ribla ; and so seconded with the
" burning and destruction of City and Temple by Nebuzaradan,
" lamented by Jeremiah."
52. " Asa or ^Ethiopes : 2 Chron. xiv. ; with the deposing of his
" mother and burning her idol."
53. " Dura : The Three Children : Dan. iii."
II. FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT.
1. " Baptistes. The Scene, the Court. Beginning from the
" morning of Herod's birthday. Herod, by some counsellor (or else
" the Queen may plot, under pretence of begging for his liberty,
112 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
" to seek to draw him into a snare by his freedom of speech),
" persuaded on his birthday to release John Baptist, purposes it.
" Causes him to be sent for to the Court from prison. The Queen
" hears of it ; takes occasion to pass where he is on purpose, under
" pretence of reconciling to him, or seeking to draw a kind retrac-
" tion from him of the censure on the marriage — to which end she
" sends a courtier before, to sound whether he might be persuaded
" to mitigate his sentence ; which not finding, she herself craftily
" assays, and on his constancy founds an accusation to Herod of a
" contumacious affront on such a day before many peers. Prepares
" the King to some passion, and, at last, by her daughter's dancing,
" effects it. There may prologize the spirit of Philip, Herod's
" brother. It may also be thought that Herod had well bedewed
" himself with wine, which made him grant the easier to his wife's
" daughter. Some of his [John's] disciples also, as to congratulate
" his liberty, may be brought in ; with whom [John], after certain
" command of his death, many compassionating words of his dis-
" ciples, bewailing his youth cut off in his glorious course — he
" telling them his work is done, and asking them to follow Christ,
" his master."
2. " Christ Born"
3. " Herod Massacring, or Rachel Weeping : Matth. ii."
4. *" Christus Patiens. The scene in the Garden, beginning
" from the coming thither till Judas betrays, and the officers lead
" him away. The rest by Message and Chorus. His agony may
" receive noble expressions."
5. " Christ Bound."
6. " Christ Crucified"
7. " Christ Risen"
8. "Lazarus: John xi."
II. SUBJECTS FKOM BRITISH HISTORY.
I. " BRITISH TRAGEDIES." J
" 1. Venutius, husband to Cartismandua." A.D. 51. — " The Cloister
" King Constans set up by Vortiger." A.D. 408.2
" 2. Vortimer poisoned by Rb'ena." A.D. 475.
"3. Vortiger immured. — Vortiger, marrying Rb'ena" (see Speed),
" reproved by Vodin, Archbishop of London (Speed.) — The Massacre
" of the Britons by Hengist in their cups at Salisbury Plain
" (Malmesbury)." A.D. 450-476.
1 The numbering in this series is together ; though, from the large in-
Milton's own. I have added the dates terval of time between the two, I
of the transactions that form the suspect that the first subject was an
subjects. afterthought, intended as separate, but
2 Not to disturb the numbering, I entered beside the other,
have kept the two subjects of No. 1
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS: JOTTINGS OF SUBJECTS. 113
"4. Sigher, of the East Saxons, revolted from the faith, and
" reclaimed by Jarumang." A.D. 665.
u 5. Ethelbert, of the East Angle*, slain by 0/a the Mercian Kin,,.
"See Holinshed 1. vi. c. 5; Speed, in the Life of Offa aiid
" Ethelbert." A.D. 792.
*' 6. Sebert slain by Penda, after he had left his kingdom. See
"Holinshed p. 116." A.D. 644.
" 7. Wulfer slaying his two sons for being Christians." A.D. 659.
"8. Osbert of Northumberland slain for rainshing the wife of
" Bernbocard, and the Danes brought in. See Stow, Holinshed
" 1. vi. c. 12, and especially Speed 1. viii. c. 2." A.D. 867.
" 9. Edmond, last King of the East Angles, martyred by Hinguar
" the Dane. See Speed 1. viii. c. 2." A.D. 870.
" 10. Sigebert, tyrant of the West Saxons, slain by a swine-herd"
A.D. 755.
"11. Edmund, brother of Athelstan, slain by a thief at his own
" table (Malmesb.)." A.D. 948.
" 1 2. Edwin, son to Edward the younger, for lust deprived of his
" kingdom. Or rather by a faction of monks, whom he hated,
" together [with] the impostor Dunstan." A.D. 956.
" 1 3. Edward, son of Edgar, murdered by his stepmother ; to
" which may be inserted the tragedy stirred up betwixt the monks
" and priests about marriage." A.D. 978.
"14. Etheldred, son of Edgar, a slothful King: the ruin of his
" land by the Danes." A.D. 979-1016.
"15. Ceaulin, King of West Saxons, for tyranny dejwsed, and
" banished, and dying." A.D. 594.
" 1 6. The slaughter of the monks of Bangor by Edelfride, stirred
" up, as is said, by Ethelbert, and he by Austin the monk, because
" the Britons would not receive the rites of the Roman Church.
" See Beda, Geoffrey Monmouth, and Holinshed p. 104. Which
" must begin with the convocation of British clergy by Austin, to
" determine superfluous points which by them were refused." A.D.
602-607.
" 1 7. Edwin, by vision, promised the kingdom of Northumberland
" on promise of his conversion, and therein established by Rodoald,
" King of East Angles" A.D. 617.
"18. Oswin, King of Deira, slain by O&ioy, his friend, King of
nicid, through instigation of flatterers. See Holinshed p.
"115." A.D. 651.
"19. Xigibert of the East Angles [East Saxons], keeping company
" with a person excommunicated, slain by the same man in his home;
" according as the Bishop Cedda had foretold." A.D. 655.
" 20. Egfride, King of the Northumbers, slain in battle against
' f/c Picts ; having before wasted Ireland, and made war for no
" reason on men that ever loved the English " [may we not descry
here an allusion to another English King engaged in a war against
the same Scottish people at the very time when Milton was
VOL. II I
114 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
writing this jotting?]; "forewarned also by Cuthbert not to fight
" with the Picts." A.D. 684.
"21. Kinewulf, King of the West Saxons, slain by Kineard, in the
" house of one of his concubines" A.D. 784.
" 22. Gunthildis, the Danish lady, with her husband Palingus,
" and her son, slain by appointment of the traitor Edrick in King
" Ethelred's days. Holinshed 1. vii. c. 5 ; together with the
" massacre of the Danes at Oxford. Speed." A.D. 1002.
" 23. Brightrick, of West Saxons, poisoned by his wife Ethelburga,
" 0/a's daughter ; who dies miserably also in beggary, after adul-
" tery in a nunnery. Speed in Brithric." A.D. 802.
"24. Alfred, in disguise of a minstrel, discovers the Danes' negli-
" gence ; sets on with a mighty slaughter. About the same time the
" Devonshire men rout Hubba and slay him. — A Heroical Poem
" may be founded somewhere in Alfred's reign, especially at his
" issuing out of Edelingsey on the Danes ; whose actions are well
" like those of Ulysses." A.D. 878.
"25. Athelstan exposing his brother Edwin to the sea, and repent-
" ing." A.D. 933.
"26. Edgar slaying Ethelwold for false play in wooing. Wherein
" may be set out his pride [and] lust, which he thought to cloak
" by favouring monks and building monasteries ; also the disposition
" of woman, in Elfrida toward her husband." A.D. 970.
"27. Swane besieging London and Ethelred repulsed by the
" Londoners." A.D. 1013.
" 28. Harold slain in battle by William the Norman. The first
" scene may begin with the ghost of Alfred, the second son of
" Ethelred, slain in cruel manner by Godwin, Harold's father,
" his mother and brother dissuading him." A.D. 1066.
"29. Edmund Ironside defeating the Danes at Brentford; with
" his combat with Canute." A.D. 1016.
"30. Edmund Ironside murdered by Edrick the traitor and
" revenged by Canute." A.D. 1017.
"31. Gunilda, daughter to King Canute and Emma, wife to
" Henry, the third Emperor, accused of unchastity, is defended by her
" English page in combat against a giant-like adversary, who by
" him, at two blows, is slain, &c. Speed, in the Life of Canute."
About 1043.
"32. Hardiknute dying in his cups: an example to riot."
A.D. 1041.
"33. Edward Confessor's divorcing and imprisoning his noble
" wife, Editha, Godwin's daughter. Wherein is showed his over-
" affection to strangers, the cause of Godwin's insurrection
" (wherein Godwin's forbearance of battle praised and the English
" moderation on both sides magnified). His slackness to redress
" the corrupt clergy, and superstitious pretence of chastity."
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS: JOTTINGS OF SUBJECTS. 115
II. 'SCOTCH STORIES, OB RATHER BRITISH OF THE NORTH PARTS."
1. " Athirco slain by Natholochus, whose daughters he had
" ravished ; and this Natholochus, usurping thereon the kingdom,
" seeks to slay the kindred of Athirco, who scape him and conspire
" against him. He sends to a witch to know the event. The
" witch tells the messenger that he is the man shall slay Na-
" tholochus. He detests it ; but, in his journey home, changes
" his mind, and performs it, «fec. (Scotch Chron. Englished, pp.
" 68-69)." * Athirco, the 29th in the legendary list of Scottish
Kings, has his reign dated A.D. 231-242.
2. " Duf and Donwald: A strange story of witchcraft and
" murder discovered and revenged (Scotch Story p. 149, «kc.)."
Duff or Duffus is the 78th of the Scottish Kings, A.D. 961-966.
3. "Hay the Ploughman. Who, with his two sons that were
** at plough, running to the battle that was between the Scots ami
" Danes in the next field, stayed the flight of his countrymen, re-
" newed the battle, and caused the victory, <fcc. (Scotch Story
" p. 155)." The battle in which Hay the Ploughman thus distin-
guished himself was fought A.D. 990, in that parish of Luncarty
in Perthshire of which Young, Milton's first preceptor, was a
native.
1 . " Kenneth. Who, having privily poisoned Malcolm Duff, that
" his own son might succeed, is slain by Fenella (Scotch Hist,
pp. 157, 158, <fec.)." A.D. 994.
5. " Macbeth. Beginning at the arrival of Malcolm at Macduff.
" The matter of Duncan may be expressed by the appearing of his
" ghost." Milton seems to have thought this subject capable of
another treatment than Shakespeare's.
The very numerousness of the subjects thus collected
proves that most of them were jotted down on chance and
never thought of after the moment. At the utmost, Milton
could hope that at his leisure, after having treated whichever
he might select in chief, he might be able to go back, for
minor works, on one or two of the others. It is interesting,
however, to notice the subjects that seemed, while he was
in the course of collecting them, to attract him most.
Among the Scriptural subjects they were undoubtedly
1 The Book referred to as the autho- of the Scotorum I lift or ia: of Hector
rity for thin and the other Scottish Boothiiw, printed with H..linshed'8
us was, doubtless, the English Chronicle*,
adaptation of Bollonden's translation
116 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Paradise Lost, Abraham from Morea, Sodom Burning, Modb-
itides, Abijah, Baptistes, and Christus Patiens ; while in his
survey of British History we see him hovering most fondly,
as was natural, over the critical points or epochs, and accord-
ingly weighing most carefully the claims of such subjects- as
Vortiger and the Saxons, Alfred and the Danes, Harold and
the Normans. In the peculiar entry under the jotting of
Alfred as a subject there is proof that, though the dramatic
form was chiefly in favour with him for the time, he had not
entirely committed himself to that form against the epic ;
and the occurrence of one or two pastoral subjects in the
Biblical list shows that, within the dramatic form, he had
thoughts of quieter varieties than pure tragedy. It is curious
also to note the proof of the tenacity of Milton's mind which
is furnished by the comparison of this list of his projects in
his early manhood with the works which he did actually
accomplish ere he died. " Paradise Lost " is here under its
very name ; " Paradise Regained " is involved in some of the
New Testament subjects ; " Samson Agonistes " is here in
the form of two proposed subjects from Samson's life ; and,
though Milton never attempted an epic or a drama from
British History before the Conquest, did he not publish at
length his prose " History of Britain " ? Undoubtedly, how-
ever, the most startling inference from the list, its chief
biographical revelation, is the fact, hitherto overlooked or too
little adverted to, that as early as 1 640 Milton's thoughts were
full of the subject of " Paradise Lost." It was with a view
to a drama, indeed, that he then entertained the subject ; but
the pre-eminence it takes in the list, on this understanding,
over all the other subjects, is very remarkable. It stands
first of all ; there are three drafts of it at once, and a fourth
draft some time afterwards, set down with a direction to
compare it with the last of the former three ; and altogether
this single subject occupies nearly a page and a half of the
entire seven pages of Jottings. There are few facts in literary
history more striking than this predetermination of Milton
in his early manhood to the subject of the greatest work of
his later life.
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS: JOTTINGS OF SUBJECTS. 117
But, though " Paradise Lost," as the first subject in the
list, may have been jotted down as early as 1639-40, may it
not have been a year or two before the list of jottings was
completed ? It seems probable to me that the sheets con-
taining the jottings lay beside Milton throughout the whole
of 1640, and even into 1641 and 1642, and were added to
from time to tima Some of the schemes of subjects, and
some of the little additions or afterthoughts that were
inserted in others with the pen, bear evidence in their
phraseology that the passing events of those years had helped
to suggest them. On the whole, however, I conclude that
1640 saw most of the jottings made, and certainly that they
did not remain in hand long after the middle of 1641. The
following passage from TJie Reason of Church Government is
to the point That pamphlet, it is to be remembered, was
written towards the end of 1641, or two years after our
present date ; and the passage comes immediately after those
already quoted from it, and winds up Milton's account there
given of the literary plans and dreams which had occupied
him from the time of his return from abroad on to the
moment when the political agitations of the country had
interrupted those plans and dreams and compelled him to
throw aside poetry for sterner work. " Time serves not
" now," he says, " and perhaps I might seem too profuse, to
" give any certain account of what the mind at home, in
" the spacious circuits of her musing, hath liberty to propose
" to herself, though of highest hope and hardest attempting :
" whether that Epic form whereof the two poems of
" Homer, and those other two of Virgil and Tasso, are a
" diffuse, and the Book of Job, a brief model ; or whether
" the rules of Aristotle herein are strictly to be kept, or
" nature to be followed, which in them that know art and use
" judgment is no transgression, but an enriching of art ; and
" lastly, what King or Knight before the Conquest might be
" chosen, in whom to lay the pattern of a Christian hero.
And, as Tasso gave to a prince of Italy his choice whether
" he would command him to write of Godfrey's expedition
" against tin- Inliilrls, or Belisarius against the Goths, or
118 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" Charlemain against the Lombards, if to the instinct of
" nature and the emboldening of art aught may be trusted,
" and that there be nothing adverse in our climate or the fate
" of this age, it haply would be no rashness, from an equal
" diligence and inclination, to present the like offer in our
" own ancient stories. Or whether those Dramatic consti-
" tutions wherein Sophocles and Euripides reign shall be
" found more doctrinal and exemplary to a nation : the Scrip-
" ture also affords us a divine Pastoral Drama in the Song of
" Solomon, consisting of two persons and a double chorus, as
" Origen rightly judges ; and the Apocalypse of Saint John is
" the majestic image of a high and stately Tragedy, shutting
" up and intermingling her solemn scenes and acts with a
" sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies
" (and this my opinion the grave authority of Parseus,1 com-
" menting that Book, is sufficient to confirm). Or if occa-
" sion shall lead to imitate those magnific Odes and Hymns
" wherein Pindarus and Callimachus are in most things
" worthy, some others in their frame judicious, in their
" matter most and end faulty ; but those frequent Songs
" throughout the Law and the Prophets, beyond all these, not
" in their divine argument alone, but in the very critical art
" of composition, may be easily made appear over all the
" kinds of Lyric Poesy to be incomparable. These abilities,
" wheresoever they may be found, are the inspired gift of
" God, rarely bestowed, but yet to some (though most abuse)
" in every nation, and are of power, beside the office of
" a pulpit, to inbreed and cherish in a great people the seeds
" of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturbations of
" the mind, and to set the affections in right tune to cele-
" brate in glorious and lofty hymns the throne and equi-
" page of God's Almightiness, and what He works, and
" what He suffers to be wrought with high providence in His
" Church ; to sing the victorious agonies of Martyrs and
" Saints, the deeds and triumphs of just and pious nations
" doing valiantly through faith against the enemies of Christ ;
1 David Parseus, or Pare. German Protestant theologian and commentator,
1548-1622.
1639-40.] LITERARY PROJECTS. 119
" to deplore the general relapses of kingdoms and states from
"justice and God's true worship. Lastly, whatsoever in
" religion is holy and sublime, in virtue amiable or grave,
" whatsoever hath passion or admiration in all the changes
" of that which is called fortune from without, or the wily
" subtleties and refluxes of man's thoughts from within, — all
" these things with a solid and treatable smoothness to paint
" out and describe ; teaching over the whole book of sanctity
" and virtue, through all the instances of example, with such
" delight, to those especially of soft and delicious temper
" who will not so much as look upon Truth herself unless
" they see her elegantly drest, that, whereas the paths of
" honestyand good life appear now rugged and difficult, though
" they be indeed easy and pleasant, they would then appear
" to all men both easy and pleasant though they were rugged
" and difficult indeed. And what a benefit this would be to
" our youth and gentry may be soon guessed by what we
" know of the corruption and bane which they suck in daily
" from the writings and interludes of libidinous and ignorant
" poetasters, who, having scarce ever heard of that which is
" the main consistence of a true poem — the choice of such
" persons as they ought to introduce, and what is moral and
" decent to each one — do for the most part lap up vicious
" principles in sweet pills, to be swallowed down, and make
" the taste of virtuous documents harsh and sour."
Is not this a virtual, nay an all but literal, description by
Milton of those seven pages of his private MS. jottings which
have been detaining us, and of his poetic meditations among
them till the call to sterner work compelled him to lay
them aside ?
For Milton's plans of great poems or works of pure litera-
ture of any kind were not long to last. Even while he was
writing those jottings and indulging in those dreams England
was drifting on through a second Bellum Episcopate, or War
with the Scots concerning Bishops, the consequences of
which were not to stop within Scotland, but were to involve
Kn-jliind herself from end to end Not the less is it pleasant
to think of Milton, as this chapter has presented him to us,
120 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
during his brief breathing-time of peace and poetic scheming
before the great interruption came. Do we not see him ?
There, through the winter of 1639-40, he sits among his
books and papers, in his lodging in St. Bride's Churchyard,
his two boy-nephews occasionally with him, or more often
in an adjoining room, the bustle of Fleet Street and Ludgate
Hill well shut out, or only at nights the not unpleasing
melancholy of the wintry London gusts mingling with the
quiet and warmth within. The very thoughts that then
made up Milton's musings are known to us, and we can see
the books that were chiefly on his table. His thoughts were
of the Italian scenes and friends so recently left and yet
bright in his memory, of the sad death of Diodati and of the
poorer English world remaining for himself now that Diodati
was gone ; yet also of his own duties in that world, foreseen
from youth, but now beginning to press through maturity of
years and experience. He was to teach the English nation
a new ideal of Literature, and for that purpose he must leave
his minor Poems behind for what they were worth, and set
about works of higher and larger structure that should task
his utmost powers. For such works there must be preparation.
There must be a due apparatus of material, and of selection
and extract from amid that material. Well, there it is ! All
round his room are books ; but there are a few that are
habitually in use. These are the Bible (in English and in
the originals), some Latin commentaries on the Bible of re-
cognised merit, Holinshed's Chronicles of England and Scot-
land, Speed's Chronicle, Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis
Anglorum, Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Britonum,
William of Malmesbury's De G-estis Regum, and one or two
others. 0 ver these he pores day after day, reading, ruminating,
and making notes. The Seven Pages of Jottings which now
form pp. 35 — 41 of the volume of Milton MSS. at Cam-
bridge were the chief immediate result of those readings.
Those pages once lay under Milton's fingers. They were
begun, I calculate, in the winter of 1639—40, but may
have been continued through 1640 and perhaps into 1641
or even 1642. And so, for the present, we leave Milton, books
1639-40.]
1.1 11 KARY PROJECTS.
121
before him, pen in hand, and the Jottings, which the reader
has just seen in their complete state, not yet quite in that
state, but only in progress.1
1 A very vigilant reader may require
more exact proof than has been fur-
nished in the text that the Seven PC
of Jottings of Subjects in the Caml
MS. volume do belong to the yean 1(
•!'_'. <>r the year or two immediately fol-
lowing Milton's return from his Italian
journey. Here, therefore, are the heads
of the proof:— (1) That the Jottings
cannot have been made before the Ita-
lian journey is proved, not only by the
fact that the scheme of a future Poem
with which Milton entertained himself
during that journey, and for a little
while after his return from it, was OB*
quite apart from the Jottings, but also
by the evidence of the handwriting.
In specimens of Milton's autograph
before the Italian journey, including
the draft of his Lycidas, written in
Nov. 1637, the small letter . is, all but
invariably, shaped in the Greek form
(i) ; but after his return from Italy,
and probably in consequence of his stay
there, his all but uniform habit was to
shape it much as wo do now (e). This
furnishes a useful test of date to bo
applied to Milton's handwriting in
many cases ; and, as applied to the
Jottings, it is conclusive that they can-
not have been made earlier than 1639.
The Greek form of the e is superseded
in them by our present form. (2) Mil-
ton was totally blind in 1652, and for
several years before that he had prac-
tically ceased to use his own hand in
any continuous writing. The latest
piece in his own handwriting in the
Cambridge volume is a Sonnet of date
1648 ; the next latest is a Sonnet of
date 1646 ; and the pieces in his hand
of later date than 1642 are very few.
As the Jottings are an extensive and
rather elaborate mass of handwriting,
with corrections, interlineations, and
close-packing, which must have required
the full use of eyesight, it seems fair,
on that ground alone, to make the
year 1648 the utmost limit of //,,,,
possibility. (3) A minute examination
of the C'aiul>ri<l^e volume, in respect of
paper, water-mark, and other such
mechanical particulars, shows a certain
continuity in the eight sheets forming
its middle and larger portion. The
entire volume consists of 54 pages, and
those middle eight sheets of it are the
32 pages from p. 11 to p. 42 inclusively.
They contain the Draft of f •„,„,,.«. the
Draft of Lycidas, and the JOTTINGS,
and in such a manner that these form
a little mass of autograph by them-
selves, .separated by blank pages from
what precedes in the volume and from
what follows. The suggestion to the
eye is that the JOTTINGS either were
written in an unoccupied j>art of a
thin paper-book which already con-
tained the Drafts of Cum us and Lycidas,
or were written on sheets of the same
l>aper still in possession. Either way,
the JOTTINGS are brought pretty close
to Lycidas. (4) It would be difficult
to find a time in Milton's life after 1641
when he could have been at leisure, or
in the mood, for such Jottings, and
the literary balancings and hesitations
which they indicate. (5) From a state-
ment in Phillips's Life of Milton, illus-
trated by Aubrey's notes, it distinctly
appears that Phillips had heard some
lines of Paradise Lost road to him by
his uncle as early as about 1642. This
proves that Milton had by that time
done more with the first great subject
among the Jottings than merely register
it. (6) The passage quoted in the text
from The Reason of Church Government,
and other passages in the same treatise,
would alone be conclusive. That trea-
tise was written at the end of 1641 ;
and the passages in question exhibit
Milton as if actually looking at the
Jottings lying on his table, taking
the public into his confidence respect-
ing them, and explaining with what
regret ho had in that year torn himself
away from such literary contempla-
tions and labours in order to embark
in politics.
CHAPTEE III.
EPISCOPAL ALARMS IN ENGLAND BISHOP HALL'S EPISCOPACY BY
DIVINE RIGHT THE SHORT PARLIAMENT THE SECOND "BISHOPS3
THE Scots had duly held their second General Assembly, as
authorized by the Pacification of Birks. It met at Edin-
burgh, with David Dickson as Moderator, and sat from the
12th to the 30th of August 1639. Ostensibly it discussed
matters de novo ; but in reality it reasserted and confirmed all
the decisions of the Glasgow Assembly of 1 6 3 8. The Parlia-
ment promised at the Pacification had also met, with no
Prelates in it, but only the nobles and representatives of
the lairds and of the burghs. Thwarted, however, at every
step by the King's Commissioner, Traquair, this Parliament
(Aug. 31 — Nov. 14) had not been able to do much. Its most
important act was the nomination of a committee of twenty-
two of its number to watch proceedings till June 2, 1640,
the day to which it stood prorogued. Still, in the main,
Scotland was at ease. She had swept away her Bishops,
and was able to rejoice once more in an apparatus of simple
Presbyterianism.
EPISCOPAL ALARMS IN ENGLAND : BISHOP HALL'S EPISCOPACY
BY DIVINE RIGHT.
In England the prevalent feeling continued to be that of
sympathy with the Scots. To this feeling, however, there
were some exceptions. More particularly among the English
1639-40.] EPISCOPAL ALARMS IN ENGLAND. 123
clergy, and among those laymen who had an affection for the
existing forms and constitution of the Church of England,
there was a sense of danger and provocation. There was
both danger and provocation in the proximity of a Kirk so
zealous in its assertion of anti-Episcopal principles as that
of the Scots, and viewed with such ominous interest by a
large body of the English people. It might not be great
matter of regret, so far as the Scots were themselves con-
cerned, that they had modelled their jagged little portion
of the island to their own fashion, and rejected the benefits
of a Liturgy and the order of Bishops. But had not the
success of the Scots been a blow to the cause of Episcopacy
generally ? Was not the Church of England challenged and
menaced, and was not some demonstration necessary to set
that Church right both with her own members and with the
world at large ? If the Scots must be let go, should they
not be let go execrated and excommunicated, rather than
with the honours of victory ?
These feelings found a spokesman in that Dr. Joseph Hall,
bishop of Exeter, of whom we have already had glimpses in
this History. Known in his youth as " the English Persius,"
on account of his coarsish but masculine metrical satires,
and afterwards styled " the English Seneca," on account of
his more numerous prose-writings, this Prelate had hitherto
been in greater favour with the Puritans than most of his
brethren. He was regarded as a Prelate of the old Calvin-
istic, rather than of the Laudian, school. He had even been
in conflict with Laud while Laud was rising into the ascend-
ency. Of late, however, he had been approximating to
Laud : I should even say that he had been toadying Laud in
secret. I have seen disagreeable private letters of informa-
tion written by him to Laud respecting nests of Sectaries
in London whom it would be well to extirpate; and my
distinct impression is that, in his conduct generally, and
even in his writings, when carefully examined, there will
be found a meaner element than our literary dilettanti
and antiquaries have been able to discern in so celebrated
a bishop. Now, at all events, in his sixty-sixth year, he
124 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
came forward in a way that was to give a marked character
to the whole remainder of his life.
The circumstances are these : — The second General As-
sembly of the Scots had published their Acts. Hall, in his
palace at Exeter, had procured a copy of them, and had been
reading with indignation the stuff put forth by " these ignorant
factionists." He is so moved that, the very next day (Sept.
28), he writes to Laud at Lambeth.1 As the reconquest of
Scotland to the true Church by the sword was not now to
be hoped, might not means be taken, he asks, at least to
counteract the mischievous nonsense which the Scots were
propagating ? What, for example, if his Grace were to advise
his Majesty to call a General Synod of the bishops, doctors,
and other dignitaries " of the whole three kingdoms " to
discuss the " schismatical points " ? Would not the effect
be, if not " chokingly to convince " the Scottish schismatics,
at least to " hiss them out of countenance " ? To this sug-
gestion Laud, after consulting the King, replies that there
are strong reasons of State against the calling of any such
Synod, but that Hall's zeal is to -be commended, and that,
if Hall himself were to employ his well-known powers in a
written confutation of the Scottish schismatics, the result
might be little less authoritative. Hall is a little taken
aback by the honour so proposed to him, and he intimates
(Oct. 18) that it would be more comfortable for him to be
associated in the work with a select jury of other bishops
and divines. Might not Laud himself, if his Grace's leisure
would allow him, appear at the head of " the learned squad-
ron," together with Morton of Durham and Davenant of
Salisbury for England, Primate Usher and bishops Bedell
and Lesley for Ireland, and some of the exiled Scottish
bishops for Scotland ? Laud having, in his reply, objected
to this plan, on account of " the danger of variance," Hall
does at length undertake the work assigned to him, on con-
dition that he shall have the benefit of Laud's private
1 The originals of this and the follow- text, together with Laud's replies, are
ing letters of Hall referred to in the in the State Paper Office.
1639-40.] HALL'S EPISCOPACY BY I>IVIM-: IU<HIT. 125
advice during its progress. Accordingly there follows a
most characteristic correspondence between the two prelates.
Hall first sends Laud a general outline or " platform " of the
treatise he means to write, with a rather abject request for
his Grace's corrections and amendments ; and Laud uses the
liberty thus given him in a way which shows what a source
of power he had over larger but less sincere natures than
his own in his extreme definiteness of opinion and his habit
of sharply taking exception to whatever he disliked. The
substance of his criticism on Hall's " platform " is that Hall
concedes too much, and that, high as he places the claims of
Episcopacy, he does not place them high enough. Why, for
example, concede that " the Presbyterian government may be
of use where Episcopacy may not be had " ? What place in
all Christendom was there, having a Church " more than in
title only," where Episcopacy might 'not be had ? And then,
for safely steering the argument in behalf of Anglican Epi-
scopacy between the " Italian rock " of the Ultramontanists on
the one hand and the " great rock in the Lake of Geneva "
on the other, might not Hall take this method ? Against the
Romanists, who admit in bishops only a jus divinum media-
turn " by, from, and under the Pope," why not assert a jus
divinum immediatum " which makes the Church aristocratical
in bishops " ; and against the Genevans, some of whom did
not deny Episcopacy to be juris divini ut suadentis vel appro-
bantis, so long as it was not made imperantis, — nay, some of
whom, as Beza, had gone so far as to allow it might be juris
divini imperantis, so long as it was not made universaliter im-
perantis, — why not maintain absolutely and universally the
divine right of Episcopacy ? In any case, would Hall be so
good as to send his treatise to Lambeth, bit by bit, as it was
written, that there might be farther consideration of it ?
With some evidence of a feeling on Hall's part that he is
in for it" with his resolute little superior, and would like
at least to have an " attestation " from other bishops of their
agreement with him, he acquiesces in everything ; and the
result is the appearance in London, in the course of February
»-40, of a small quarto volume of about 280 pages
126 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
entitled " Episcopacy "by Divine Right asserted by Jos. Hail,
Bishop of Exon" 1
This treatise of Bishop Hall's fell upon public opinion
in England with great force, and was to have graver con-
sequences than Hall anticipated. In Scotland, however, it
does not seem to have attracted so much attention as a
smaller anonymous satirical quarto of 78 pages, published
about the same time, under the title of " The Epistle Con-
gratulatorie of Lysim,achus Nicanor, of the Societie of Jesu, to
the Covenanters of Scotland, wherein is paralleled our sweet
harmony and correspondency in divers materiall points of
Doctrine and Practice" c* The author of this pamphlet is
now known to have been a Scot, named John Corbet, once
a minister in Dumbartonshire, who, absconding from the
Covenanting Kirk, had gone over to Ireland and was writing
there under Wentworth's protection.3 Baillie, who had just
finished a little treatise of his own on the errors of the
Laudians, thought it worth while to append some reference
to Lysimachus Mcanor's pamphlet ; and, accordingly, by way
of counterblast to the two pamphlets on the Episcopal side,
there came forth at Edinburgh " Ladensium AvTo/cara/cptcr^,
The Canterburians' Self-conviction : or an Evident Demon-
stration of the avowed Arminianism, Poperie, and Tyrannic
of that Faction, by their own Confessions : with a Postscript
to the personate Jesuite, Lysimachus Nicanor, a prime Canter-
burian." 4
These three pamphlets, of Hall, Corbet, and Baillie, were all
in circulation early in 1640.
RESOLUTIONS FOR WAR: THE SHORT PARLIAMENT.
It was not to be a war of the pen only. Even while making
the Peace with the Scots at Berwick, and holding conferences
with their chief negotiators, Eothes, Loudoun, and Hender-
1 Registered at Stationers' Hall, Feb. Mr. Young, booksellers.
10, 1639-40, and published by Natha- 3 Baillie, I. 163 and 243.
niel Butter at the Pied Bull, St. Au- 4 "Revised, according to the ordin-
gustine's Gate. ance of the General Assembly, by Mr.
2 Registered at Stationers' Hall, Feb. A. Johnstone, clerk thereunto, "and pub-
19, 1639-40, by Richard Badger and lished in April 1640.
1639-40.] RESOLUTIONS FOR A NEW WAR. 127
son, Charles had been writing over to Wentworth, expressing
his hope that he might soon have another trial of " the kingly
way" with the " rebels" and " incendiaries" ; and, though, after
his return to London, he was for some time " very melan-
cholic," 1 his spirits rose as months went on. Irritation was
kept up with the Scots by complaints of their proceedings in
their second Assembly and their Parliament; messengers
whom they sent to Court were denied audience ; and Winde-
bank and his Home-office officials began new arrests of
London citizens, and searches of their houses for papers, on
suspicion of complicity with the Scots.2 And such pro-
ceedings were but symptoms of a resolution that was forming
itself in the King's more private councils. Wentworth, on
whom the King was now learning, rather late in the day, to
place more dependence than on himself, came over by ex-
press invitation from Ireland (Oct.), wretchedly invalid with
gout and other disorders, but with a soul of iron still in his
shattered body.3 People observed the fact, the rather because
now more than ever was the King often closeted with a
cabinet or junto of ministers distinct from the general body
of his Council. Of this junto, besides Wentworth, were Laud,
Hamilton, Cottington, and Windebank. But the public
could hardly have been prepared for the issue of the delibera-
tions of this junto. " December 5," writes Laud in his Diary,
" the King declared his resolution for a Parliament in case
' of the Scottish Rebellion (the first movers to it were my
" Lord Deputy of Ireland, my Lord Marquis Hamilton, and
" myself), and a resolution voted at the Board to assist the
" King in extraordinary ways, if the Parliament should prove
" peevish and refuse." 4 That Charles should have consented
now to the calling of a Parliament, after eleven years during
which it had almost been treason in England to mention the
word Parliament, shows the severity of the exigency. Went-
» Clarendon's Hint 61. rant, of date Sept. 23, 1639, in tho
8 Among tho houses so searched was 8. P. O. See Vol. I. pp. 62, 63.
the person of tho name name who had
been "servant "or apprentice to Mil- * There is a State Paper, of date
ton's father sixteen yean before. War- Deo. 5, 1639, to tho samo effect.
128 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
worth, who had never shared the King's extreme horror of
Parliaments, and whose Irish experience had persuaded him
that Parliaments, if well bitted and managed, might be made
to assist in the policy of " Thorough " rather than impede it,
had doubtless over-argued the King's reluctance.
While the summonses were out for the new Parliament, to
be held on the 13th of April, and while the word Parliament
was leaping from mouth to mouth, with a strange thrill in
the sound, throughout the shires of England, all means were
taken to pre-adjust the Parliament to its purpose, and to aid
that purpose should the Parliament fail. There were frequent
meetings of the Council ; in which body there were some
changes about this time. The Earls of Northumberland,
Newport, and Berkshire had been recently added to it ; the
death (Jan. 1639-40) of the Lord Keeper Coventry led to the
promotion to his high place of Sir John Finch, Chief Justice
of the Common Pleas ; and in lieu of Secretary Coke, who
had been in disgrace since the Pacification of Birks (he was
near fourscore years of age, and nobody cared for him, says
Clarendon), there was appointed the Treasurer Sir Henry
Vane, with a fixed division of duties between him and the
other Secretary, Windebank.1 It having happened also that
the resident Scottish Secretary of State, the poetical Earl of
Stirling, died about this time (Feb. 1639-40), Lord Lanark, a
brother of the Marquis of Hamilton, was appointed to that
post. A certain number of the councillors, with officers not
of the Council, were formed into a Council of War, and from
this Council of War were chosen those who were to command
in the new expedition against the Scots.2 There was no
thought this time of the art-loving Arundel for commander -
in-chief. The Earl of Northumberland, official High Admiral
already, was nominated instead. As Lieutenant-General
under him was to be no other than Wentworth ; while for
1 Various memoranda in S. P. 0. of Hill," Feb. 3, recommending a servant
attendances at council meetings about to his successor Vane,
this time, these attendances varying 2 There is in the S. P. 0. a list of this
from about 10 to about 20 ; letter of Council of War set down by the King's
Reade in S. P. 0. of date Jan. 13, 1639 own hand on the day of their appoint-
—40 ; letter of same, ibid. Jan. 23 ; ment, Dec. 30, 1639.
letter of Coke himself, dated "Garlick
1639-40.] PREPARATIONS FOR A NEW WAR. 129
the post of Master of the Horse there was found a nobleman
who, it was thought, would figure better in that capacity than
the Earl of Holland, the hero of the Kelso raid. This was the
intelligent and amiable Edward, Lord Conway, son of the
Lord Conway who had been one of the Secretaries of State in
the first years of Charles's reign. He was in the prime of
life, had seen a good deal of service, and was brought over
from Holland on purpose by Wentworth's advice.1
The supreme trust which Charles now placed in Wentworth
himself was apparent. Indeed, Wentworth was no longer
merely Lord Wentworth, Deputy for Ireland ; he was Earl
of Strafford, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. That earldom for
which he had twice applied in vain was now (Jan. 12,
1639-40) voluntarily accorded to him, with the other dignity
in addition.2 The King clung to him as his mainstay ; and
he remained in England till March. During his six months'
stay in England he had done wonders. He had headed, with
a subscription of 20,000/., the loan to the King which it had
been agreed, at the time of a resolution for a Parliament, to
raise among the Lords of Council and other nobles. The
Duke of Lennox had put down his name for a like sum, and
other nobles had followed with smaller offers according to
their ardour and means. Among those who were greatly
inconvenienced by the new tax upon their loyalty was our
friend the Earl of Bridgewater, the " Earl " of Milton's Comus.
There is a long and anxious private correspondence in the
State Paper Office between him and Secretary Windebank on
the subject. The Earl, writing from his house in the Barbican,
says that it was his intention to "lend his Majesty o,000/.,"
but that he has no ready means, and, though he has applied
to " several scriveners of his acquaintance," they cannot help
him with even 500/. In a subsequent letter he says that he
has been disappointed of a sum of 1,000/. which one scrivener
kid promised him. His prrplrxi lies WON increased by Winde-
1 Kink's replies; which were to the effect that, raise the'
money how he might, the King would expect 10,000/. from
» Conway Letters in 8. P. 0., Jan. 1 039 40.
* Clarendon, 51.
VOL. II K
130 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
him, and that, if he would give the security of one of his
manors or so, with a clear title, Windebank might manage to
raise the sum for him, or 7,0 OO/. of it, among the usurers.
The correspondence closes rather indistinctly, but with some-
thing like tears in the Earl's eyes on account of the straits to
which he is driven, and with anxiety as to the time when he
may expect repayment, so as to be able to arrange for the
" payment of his debts and provision for his children. "
When he speaks of the " scriveners of his acquaintance " to
whom he had applied for money, one thinks of the ex-
scrivener John Milton, and wonders whether, even in his
retirement at Horton, the poet's father still did a little in
money-lending.1
Just two days before the meeting of the Parliament on
which so much depended, the King dealt a bold stroke which
was meant to tell on that assembly. There had been in
London since January a deputation from the Scottish Com-
mittee of the Estates, imploring the King to ratify the acts
of the late General Assembly, and allow the Scottish Parlia-
ment to resume business. This deputation, consisting of Lord
Loudoun, the Earl of Dunfermline, Douglas of Cavers, and
Provost Barclay of Irvine, had had several meetings with the
King, but had effected nothing. There had come into the
King's possession, however, a draft of a letter which had been
written before the last war by some of the Scottish leaders.
It was a letter in French, addressed " Au Roy" signed by
Montrose, Eothes, General Leslie, Loudoun, and one or two
others, and intended apparently to be sent to the French
King, Louis XIII., to solicit his and Richelieu's interest in
the affairs of the Scots. It does not appear that the letter
was sent ; but the draft was enough. Was not this treason ?
Would not the English think differently of the Scots on this
proof of their having been in communication, or having
intended communication, with a foreign power ? Summonses
were sent to Leslie and others who had signed the draft,
1 The dates of the letters between bank had called personally upon the
the Earl and Windebank, now in the Earl in his hoiise in the Barbican about
S. P. 0., are as follows: Jan. 4, 1639- the money.
40 ; Jan. 7 ; Jan. 28 ; Feb. 10. Winde-
1639-40.]
THE SHORT PARLIAMENT.
131
requiring their presence in London ; but, as they were wise
enough to stay where they were, the brunt of the Kind's
wrath had to be borne by poor Loudoun. On the llth of
April he was committed to the Tower ; where he lay for more
than two months, with as near a prospect as ever prisoner
had of a chop with the executioner's axe on a scaffold on
Tower Hill.1
Neither the letter "Au Roy " nor all the King's precautions
and efforts besides made anything of the Parliament to his
purpose. It was a Parliament, the Commons House at least,
of that old indomitable English stuff which had sufficiently
disgusted the King with Parliaments already. Led by Pym,
it entered at once on the vast question of the grievances of
the country as they had been accumulated during eleven
years of arbitrary licence, and it would not even discuss, until
that question should be settled, the twelve subsidies which
the King wanted immediately to defray Scottish war-expenses.
In a fit of despair the King dissolved the Parliament, after it
had sat but about three weeks (April 13 — May 5, 1640), and
secured for itself a peculiar place in English History under
the name of THE SHORT PARLIAMENT.2
The chief positive interest attached to this Parliament
arose from the fact that the Convocation of the Clergy, which
had met at the same time in St. Paul's, did not come
to an end with the Parliament, as was the custom, but, by
the King's desire, sat on for three weeks longer (till May 29).
The extra time thus allowed it was employed in voting a
" benevolence " to the King of 20,000/. annually for six years,
and also on a scheme of Laud's for revising the Canons of the
( 'hurch, so as to adapt them to existing emergencies. It was
very dangerous work. Since the Reformation the most
•• with it by his Majesty himself, to his
" Majesty's own hand, at Whitehall, in
" the presence of the Lord-Maniuis Ha-
"milton, the llth of April, 1640." The
summonses to Leslie, Argyle, &c., to
come to London, were issued March 8 -
10, as appears by copies in the 8. P. 0.
2 For proceedings of this Parliament,
with lists of members, see Rushworth,
III. 1104-1160; and, for briefer sum.
M, May's Hist, (edit 1812), 39-41 ;
and Clarendon, 53—56.
1 Soo Rushworth, III. 1120, where
i« an English version of the letter
In the S. P. O. is a copy of
the French original, endorsed byWmde-
bank as follows: "The original of this
" letter was delivered to me by his Ma-
jesty at Whitehall the 10th of April.
' 1640. When I had made this copy of
4 the Covenanters' letter to be sent to
4 the Earl of Leicester (ambassador at
4 Paris), I delivered the original letter.
4 after this copy had been compared
132 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
extreme jealousy had been shown by the law of England
of such separate corporate action of the clergy ; and, if the
law were to assert itself in this case, high penalties were sure
to be the consequence. Accordingly, a good many members
of Convocation protested against the preparation of new
Canons as beyond their power. But Laud and the majority
persevered ; and a body of seventeen new Canons, which had
been drawn up, was finally authenticated as the Acts of the
Synod by the signatures of Laud, fourteen bishops, and
eighty-nine inferior clergymen. Among the Canons one of
the most important was Canon VI., enjoining an oath to be
taken before the 2nd of November following by all clergymen
of the Church ; two of the clauses of which oath were to this
effect : — " I, A. B., do swear that I do approve the doctrine
" and discipline or government established in the Church of
" England as containing all things necessary to salvation, . . .
" nor will I ever give my consent to alter the government of
" this Church by Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, and Arch-
" deacons, &c., as it now stands established, and by right
" ought to stand." It was the first time, said the opponents
of the Canons, that ever men had been required to swear
to an etcetera. The Canon, in fact, came to be memorable
as the Etcetera Oath}
Suspecting complicity between the Puritan leaders of the
Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters, the King caused
several of the former to be arrested immediately after the dis-
solution, and the houses of others, both peers and commoners,
to be searched for papers. With the same view, Loudoun
being already safe in the Tower, his two fellow-agents for the
Covenanters, Douglas of Cavers and Provost Barclay of Irvine,
were subjected to a rigorous examination.2 What with such
' gatory he saith that he never had any
1 Rushworth, III. 1186-7 ; Fuller's
Church Hist., anno 1640 (where
Fuller gives an account of the Convo-
cation from his own recollections) ;
Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, II. 329
— 336 ; and Convocation Papers in
S. P. 0.
2 The following is from the MS.
examination of Douglas of Cavers,
signed by himself, in the S. P. 0., dated Covenanter in a London playhouse !
May 9, 1640: "To the first interro-
' conference at all with any of the Lower
' House of Parliament, saving that he
' met, in the Playhouse at the Cockpit
'in Drury Lane, Sir William Wither-
' ington and Sir William Carnaby ; but
' he had no speech with them concerning
'any business in Parliament, nor did
' anything but salute them. " A Scottish
1639-40.] RIOTS IN LONDON. 133
incidents as these, following the shock of the dissolution of the
Parliament, and what with the rage against the Clergy caused
by their continued sitting in Convocation and passing Canons
after the Parliament had been dismissed, the commotion in
London rose to the pitch of riot. " Saturday, May 9," writes
Laud in his Diary, " a paper posted upon the Old Exchange,
animating the Prentices to sack my house upon the Monday
following early " ; and again, " At midnight (Monday, May
11) my house at Lambeth was beset by 500 of these rascal
routers." They were full two hours at the gates of Lambeth
Palace, but did not succeed in getting in. But for several
days the riots continued, both in the City and in Southwark ;
and on the 15th White Lion prison and the King's Bench
prison were broken open by a mob, and the prisoners released.
In connexion with which old London riot take the following
little story : —
Documents in the State Paper Office enable me to recognise
as one of the rioters a certain John Archer, living in
Southwark. He was a poor never -do- well, by trade a
glover, ruined by a legacy of 50/. left him by a deceased
uncle. The money had been left in the hands of a Robert
Maynard, of Middlesex, gentleman, with instructions to dole
it out to Archer as he required it. About 30/. had been
already drawn, and early in May, according to Mr. Maynard's
statement, Archer had called on him for ten shillings more on
account. Since then Mr. Maynard had heard nothing of him,
till he learnt by chance that he had been seen among the
rioters of Lambeth, acting as their drummer. It was quite
true. Archer, conspicuous among all the rest by his drum,
had been caught, and sent to White Lion prison. Thence
the mob had released him, apparently attacking that prison
for the purpose. He had been re-apprehended, however ; and
the following is a royal warrant relating to him, dated the
21st of May, and addressed " To our trusty and well-beloved
Sir William Balfour, Knt., Lieutenant of our Tower of
London." The particular attention of the reader is requested
to the Warrant, now for the first time made public : " Trusty
"and well- beloved: We greet you well Our will and
134 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" pleasure is that to-morrow morning, by seven of the clock,
" you cause John Archer to be carried to the rack, and that
" there yourself, together with Sir Ealph Whitfield and Sir
" Eobert Heath, Knights, our Serjeants-at-law, shall examine
" him upon such questions as our said Serjeants shall think
" fit to propose to him ; and if, on sight of the rack, he shall
" not make a clear answer to the said questions, then our will
" and pleasure is that you cause him to be racked as in your
" and their discretion shall be thought fit. And, when he shall
" have made a full answer, then the same is to be brought to
" us, and you are still to detain him close prisoner until you
" receive farther orders. And this shall be, as well to you as
" to our said Serjeants, sufficient warrant and discharge in this
" behalf. Given under our signet, at our Court at Whitehall,
"21 May, 1640." Students of the Constitutional History
of England may remember what Rush worth states in con-
nexion with the great case of the trial of Felton (Nov. 1628)
for the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham. It having
then been proposed by some of the Council to put Felton to
the rack in order to ascertain whether he had any accomplices,
and the question of the legality of such a proceeding having
been put to the Judges, " all the justices," says Eushworth,
" being assembled at Serjeants' Inn in Fleet Street, agreed
" in one that he ought not, by the law, to be tortured by the
" rack, for no such punishment is known or allowed by our
" law." ] This was eleven years and a half before Charles
issued, under his own signet, the above warrant in the case of
the Southwark rioter. Whether the warrant was executed
my authorities do not enable me to say ; but if, as I suppose,
Archer was the particular rioter who is mentioned by Laud
in his Diary as having been condemned on Thursday the 21st
of May, and hanged, drawn, and quartered at Southwark on
Saturday the 23rd, then the warrant for his torture must have
been issued between his condemnation and his execution.2
1 Eushworth, I. 638. a clerk of Sir Joseph Williamson, Secre-
2 There are two copies of the warrant tary of State after the Restoration, who
in the S. P. 0. : one a contemporary may have been interested in the docu-
draft in Reade's or Windebank's hand- ment as a curiosity in his office,
writing ; the other apparently made by
1639-40.] SECOND " BISHOPS' WAR." 135
THE SECOND "BISHOPS* WAR" WITH THE SCOTS,
Meanwhile the two armies were being mustered and drilled
in their respective countriea The English army arrangements
were superintended by Lord Con way, who had for some time
had his head-quarters at Newcastle ; the Scots were coming
together more quietly under their old commander, Field-
marshal Leslie. " It is just that you know somewhat of the
" estate I am in," we find the light-hearted Conway writing
from Newcastle, on the 28th of May, to a lady with whom he
was keeping up a lover-like correspondence : " I am teaching
" cart-horses to manage, and making men that are fit for Bed-
" lam and Bridewell to keep the Ten Commandments. So
" that General Leslie and I keep two schools: he hath
" scholars that profess to serve God, and he is instructing
" them how they may safely do injury and all impiety ; mine,
" to the uttermost of their power, never kept any law either
" of God or the King, and they are come to be made fit to
" make others keep them."1 From this description of the
English army we should infer that it was composed of ele-
ments as ill-assorted and as disaffected for their work as the
former army had been. Probably, as before, poverty of sup-
plies had much to do with it. Disappointed of his subsidies
from Parliament, the King was employing the most desperate
measures to raise such means as, added to the loan from
the nobles, the benevolence from the clergy, and the Irish
subsidies which Strafford had procured, might maintain the
army through a campaign. The City of London had been
applied to for a loan of 200,OOOJ. ; and, for the better raising
of this loan, the Aldermen of the several wards had been
required to send in lists of all the inhabitants of each ward
able to subscribe, with a note of the sum that might be fairly
expected from each person. For the contempt of this order
four Aldermen had been sent to prison. There were also all
sorts of Excise and Customs devices, ship-money distraints,
» Conway MSS. in S. P. 0.
136 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
sales of patents and monopolies, &c. In particular, there was
a rate for clothing and travelling expenses for the troops,
under the name of " coat and conduct money," to the levying
of which there was much opposition in the counties.1 It
must have been owing to the difficulty of getting in moneys
by all these means that there was so long a delay in bringing
the English expedition to bear. All through the months of
June and July, and during a part of August, Conway was
still in the North, doing his best with his levies, the grievous
billeting of whom among the inhabitants of Yorkshire and
other northern counties led to petitions which Strafford de-
nounced as " mutinous." Strafford, who had returned from
Ireland in April, still in a wretched state of health, was
giving his services mainly in London ; and the Earl of North-
umberland, though Commander-in-chief, had also the plea of
ill-health for absence from military duty. I suspect that,
with the Earl's sentiments, he was glad to have the plea. All
rested on Conway.
The delay was to the advantage of the Scots. Punctually
on the second of June, to which day their Parliament stood
prorogued, they reassembled in Parliament ; and though, in
consequence of the absence of Traquair, the King's Com-
missioner, they had to constitute themselves rather irregu-
larly, they sat till the 12th. Leslie was formally reappointed
Commander-in-chief, with Lord Almont for his Lieutenant-
general ; and the direction of the war, with the supreme
government of Scotland until Parliament should reassemble
in quieter times, was vested in a Committee of forty persons
called "The Committee of Estates." Not long after the
Parliament, the Scots held also their third General Assembly.
It met at Aberdeen on the 28th of July, with Mr. Andrew
Eamsay for Moderator, and sat till the 5th of August, getting
through business of detail (some of it of a perplexing nature)
which had accumulated since the preceding Assembly.
The arrangements of the Scots at this season were not all
1 Henry Bulstrode of Horton was 21. and 3/. (Return for Bucks in S. P. 0.
among the defaulters for a rate on his of date July 1640. )
property, under this head, of between
1639-40.] SECOND " BISHOPS' WAR" 137
deliberative. While Leslie was gathering his army south-
wards, there was the same necessity as in the former war for
taking precautions against such Non-Covenanting elements
as still smouldered within Scotland itself.
In the Castle of Edinburgh the King had placed General
Kuthven as commander, and it was not so easy to take this
castle from Ruthven as it had been to win it before the first
war. Ruthven, when summoned to surrender, had even
opened fire upon the town ; and, as stray shooting went on
between the citizens and the soldiers on the ramparts from
day to day, eighty persons had been killed. On the whole, it
was deemed best to let the castle alone till there should have
been a settlement with the English army.— In the
disaffected Aberdeenshire districts, on the other hand, Colonel
(now General) Monro was taking precautions that were re-
morselessly effective. While the Assembly was in Aberdeen,
Monro was ranging in its neighbourhood as far as to the Strath-
bogie mansion and estates of the Marquis of Huntley, who
was then in England with the King ; and he did not cease till
he had left that dangerous county " almost manless, money-
less, horseless, armless."- — It was at this time also that
Argyle made that precautionary raid, for the Committee of
Estates, through the border-highlands of Dumbartonshire,
Perthshire, and Forfarshire, then the region of the Non-
Covenanting houses of Ogilvy, Murray, and Stuart, of which
there is such pathetic commemoration in the old ballad—
" Gin my gude lord had been at hame,
As this nicht he is wi' Charlie,
There's no a Campbell in a' Argyle
Durst hae plundered the bonnie house o' Airly ! "l
About the middle of August 1640, Leslie, without Argyle
in liis company this time, but with an army of 22,000 foot
and :S,000 horse, besides artillery, was at his old quarters at
Dunse, within a few miles of the border. But this time
there was no waiting for the King to invade Scotland There
had been communications, the extent of which never can be
u of Scottish Parliament ; Baillio, I. 247, Ac. ; Stovoiwon, 432-3 ; Spalding,
&c.
138 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
known, but the existence of which to some extent can be
proved, between individual Scottish leaders and representa-
tives, authorized or self-authorized, of the English Puritans ;
and, whether influenced by such communications, or simply on
calculation what policy would now be the best, both Leslie
and the Committee of Estates had resolved that it was for the
Scots this time to invade England. From Dunse, accord-
ingly, the word was given — " March." They did march. On
Thursday the 20th of August, the Scottish army crossed the
Tweed at Coldstream, without opposition, and with the loss of
but one man by drowning, the foot-soldiers wading to the
middle, while the horse broke the force of the current above
them. The first man to cross, and to stand as an invader on
the English soil, was the young Earl of Montrose. They wore
blue caps, with a prevailing uniform of hodden-grey, and each
man had a haversack of oatmeal strapped to his back.1
The first resting-place of the Scots was at Cornhill in
Northumberland, about a mile from the Tweed. Thence, on
the following clay, they advanced through the villages of
Crooksham and Nethershaw, as far as a place called Millfield.
" The army began to march from Cornell," writes an English
eye-witness, " yesterday about 1 2 of the clock : the General
" first, with some forty or fifty at his back ; then, some quarter
" of a mile after him, the horse-troops in ranks and very fine
" order ; and, after them, the foot, in five men deep, from the
" first regiment to the last ; and then two or three troops of
" horse last ; and, a little wide of their camp, all their car-
" riages of horse- waggons and carts in abundance, with their
" provision of beds and victuals. Their number [i.e. of the
" carriage-waggons, &c.] was of itself like a huge army, being
" four pair of butts wide of the way the army did march.
u But, for their ordnance and field-pieces, they followed their
" companies in order, together with an abundance of carriage-
" wheels ; every pair thrust along before a man to every pair
" of carriage-wheels, and the pieces provided in time of need
" all carried in great close waggons, bigger than horse-litters,
" and drawn by horses. There was in this march only eight
i Baillie, I. 256.
1639-40.] SECOND "BISHOPS' WAR." 139
" cannons of brass, drawn with six oxen and two horses to
" every cannon, but an abundance of smaller field-pieces, some
" long and some short, drawn with one horse in fine light
" carriages." As to the total number he could but form a guess ;
but, at Crooksham, where he was stationed, it was five hours,
or from three o'clock to eight in the evening, before they had
all passed. " One omission I have made," he continues,
" which is now remembered, — their strength of arms ; which
" is none at all of their bodies [i.e. no body armour], not so
" much as a gorget or corslet, I know not whether you call it.
" In one word, the horse have all pike-staves, swords, and
" pistols ; some have petronels, but few ; and their horse few
" or none at all on great horses : most of them middling nags
" and geldings ; all the whole, both horse and foot, in blue
" caps, saving the lords, and some few in jacks. For the foot,
" all naked of armour as before ; only their muskets and
" swords, with short staves, one yard and a half long, with a
" pike off either end ; and the rest with pikes and swords ; and
" the Highlanders with bows and arrows, and some have swords,
" and some none. They are the nakedest fellows, the High-
" landers, that ever I saw." This same eye-witness testifies
to the good behaviour of the army. u They are so careful
" for doing harm," he says, " by their strict proclamation
" of pain of death not to stir man, woman, or child ; not so
" much as a word to fright any, nor not to steal the worth of
" a chicken nor one pot of ale, but to pay for it ; and, for corn,
" if any man suffer his horse to bite of it, and any seeing him
" catch him by the bridle, he shall have him for his pains." 1
This extreme carefulness not in any way to offend the English
was in accordance with most special instructions issued by
the Committee of Estates. Among several printed papers
they had prepared, and which the army carried with them,
justifying the invasion, was one addressed to the English
people. "As we attest the God of Heaven," said this
paper, " that these and no other are our intentions, so, upon
" the same great attestation, do we declare . . . that we will
» ThU graphic lottor ia in the 8. P. 0., in the bundle of papers for Aug. 1640,
but bean no signature.
140 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" not take from our friends and brethren from a thread even
" to a shoe-latchet but for our own moneys and the just pay-
" ment ; that we come among them as their friends and
" brethren, very sensible of their by-past sufferings and pre-
" sent dangers both in religion and liberties, and most willing
" to do them all the good we can, like as we certainly expect
" that they, for the like sense of our hard condition and in-
" tolerable distress, which hath forced us to come from our
" own country, will join and concur with us in the most just
" and noble ways for obtaining their and our most just
" desires." Scattering this and other proclamations before
them, the Scots continued to advance into Northumberland.1
On the news of the Scottish invasion Charles and Strafford
hurried north. They were at York on the 23rd, whence what-
ever orders they had to give were sent on to Conway at New-
castle. One such order was sent from York on the 27th, and
the messenger carrying it was accompanied by JohnEushworth,
the Lincoln's Inn lawyer and collector, then on a journey of
business or curiosity into those, his native, parts. But, before
this order reached Conway, a portion of his forces was already
in action with the Scots. The Scots had come as far as
Newburn, about four miles from Newcastle, on the north
bank of the Tyne, and Conway had sent a body of 5,000
horse and foot to watch their movements and prevent their
crossing the river. For about a day nothing was done on
either side, the English employing themselves in making-
two trenches or works for cannon on the south side, and the
soldiers on both sides watering their horses without the least
sign of mutual ill-will. But, on Friday the 28th, an English
soldier having taken a shot at a Scottish officer with a black
feather, whose leisurely manner of watering his horse and
looking at the English trenches at the same time was too pro-
voking to be overlooked, the battle was brought on. From
the crackle of small-arms it came to the boom of cannon.
The Scottish cannon, being on higher ground, and some of it
in the steeple of Newburn church, did most damage ; and, as
it was then low tide, and one of the English trenches had been
1 Kushworth, III. 1223—1227, and Appendix to same vol, pp. 283—291.
1639-40.] SECOND "BISHOPS* WAU." 141
abandoned, Leslie ordered a troop of his horse to cross. As
they were doing so, the English of the other trench, still
galled by Leslie's cannon, forsook it, in spite of all that Colonel
Lunsford could do to keep them to their work ; and, when
more and still more of the Scots were seen crossing, even
Lunsford's horse, who had shown fight at first, turned and fled.
Such was the fight of Newburn. It was the fight to which
Milton refers as that in which " the royal forces were routed
at the first conflict," and which decided the Second Bishops'
War. About a dozen men only were slain on the side of the
Scots, while the loss of the English amounted to about sixty
slain, with some prisoners, whom the Scots afterwards released
without condition. Small as the loss was, the panic must
have been great ; for, that same night, Con way, feeling himself
unable to continue in Newcastle, began to retreat towards
Durham. On the following day (Saturday, August 29) the
Scots were in Newcastle.1
Why such a poor affair as the fight of Newburn, followed
even by the taking of Newcastle, should have concluded the
war, does not very well appear. Such, however, was the fact.
It was, doubtless, on the King's side, a moral rather than
merely a military collapse. For a moment the result was but
a blaze of indignation against Conway for having permitted
the war to begin with a shameful disaster ; and Strafford and
the King, who had advanced from York, the one as far as
Darlington and the other to Northallerton, with the intention
of joining Conway at Newcastle, thought of the possibility of
retrieving the disaster. But, whether from the hopeless
state of the English forces, or from a just diffidence on
Stratford's part in his powers of strategy as compared with
Leslie's, the thought of farther immediate action was aban-
don, •<!, and it was resolved (August 30) to leave Northum-
berland and Durham to the mercy of the Scots, and to with-
draw all the King's forces to York. Accordingly, the Scots,
spreading themselves over the whole coal region, took posses-
sion of Durham, Tyneinouth, Shields, and other places, in
hworth. III. lirjl and 1236-9; worth and Baillio were near the spot,
and Baillio, I. 256, 257. Both Rush- but I have chiefly followed Ru*hw..rth.
142 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
addition to Newcastle. " If the English will now be beasts
" and dastardly cowards," writes Baillie at Newcastle, where
he then was, with Henderson and other Scottish preachers,
" they must lie without any man's pity under their slavish
" servitude for ever. We put little doubt but we shall get for
" ourselves fair enough conditions, but it will be to our great
" regret if we get not all the King's dominions to our happi-
" ness." l Baillie might have expressed it a little more deli-
cately, but this was the feeling of the whole Scottish army.
CALLING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
The English themselves were of the same mind. This
occupation of the North of England by the Scots was the
very opportunity for which the Puritans of England, and
some who were not Puritans, had been waiting and longing,
and which some of the more daring among them had even
been helping to bring about. If Charles did not know this
before, the evidence of it came fast in upon him at York.
There happened to him there, for example, that which but a
few days before would have seemed impossible. This was a
petition for the immediate assembling of a Parliament. It
was not a petition flung anonymously into his chamber : it
was a petition deliberately presented, and signed with the
names of the Earls of Bedford, Essex, Hertford, Mulgrave,
Warwick, Bolingbroke, Lincoln, Eutland, and Exeter, of
Viscounts Saye and Sele and Mandeville, and of Lords Brooke,
Hertford, North, Willoughby, Savile, Wharton, and Lovelace.
A petition to the same effect from the City of London, sent
despite the opposition of the portion of the Privy Council
that had been left in town, showed what feelings had been
roused among the Londoners by the news from the North.
In short, with all England astir behind him, with the York-
shire gentry immediately around him out of humour, with
but the ruin of an army left him and that rapidly de-
serting, with the Scots watching for his next resolution,
i Baillie, I. 258 ; Rushworth, III. S. P. 0., particularly one of Colonel
1239 et seq. ; and Conway Letters in Arthur Aston, dated " York, Aug. 29. "
1639-40.]
CALLING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
14:;
and with news coming from Scotland of the surrender or ap-
proaching surrender of the few castles there that had held out
for him, Charles had no choice but to yield. This yielding, as
was his way, was by inches. First, on the 5th of September,
in answer to one of the wonted humble supplications from the
Scots, dated this time from " Our Leager at Newcastle," he
required them to advance no farther into England, but
announced that he had summoned a Great Council of the
English Peers to meet him at York on the 24th of September.
His wish was still, if possible, to avoid a Parliament, and to
make this " Great Council of Peers " serve in its stead. But,
finding that this would not in the least satisfy his English
subjects, he made the last reluctant concession, and, before
the Great Council met, had issued orders for the assembling
of a Parliament also, to meet at Westminster on the 3rd
of November. Accordingly, when the Great Council did
meet, its real business was little more than to make
the arrangements immediately necessary for a treaty with
the Scots. For this purpose there were appointed, from
among the English lords, a commission of sixteen likely
to be acceptable to the Scots: to wit, the Earls of Bed-
ford, Hertford, Essex, Salisbury, Warwick, Bristol, Holland,
and Berkshire, the Viscount Mandeville, and Lords Wharton,
Paget, Brooke, Paulet, Howard of Escrick, Savile, and
Dunsmore. These were to negotiate on the English side.
Appointed to meet them on the Scottish side were the Earls
of Rothes and Dunfermline, Lord Loudoun, Sir Patrick Hep-
burn, Sir William Douglas, Drummond of Riccarton, Bailie
Smith of Edinburgh, and Burgesses Wedderburn of Dundee
and Kennedy of Ayr, all members of the Committee of
Estates ; with whom were associated, by special designation,
Alexander Henderson and Johnstone of Warriston. The
negotiation was first carried on at Ripon. There, by the 1 6th
of October, thirteen preliminary articles had been agreed
upon, one of which bound the English to maintain the
Scottish army, at the rate of 850/. a day, until such time as
the Treaty should be complete and the Scots at liberty to
1-W this conclusion, however, neither party was in
144 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
any hurry. The Scots felt no security in a peace till matters •
had been pushed a little farther in England ; and the English
lords (between some of whom and the Scots there was
now a perfect understanding) had not yet obtained for their
countrymen the full benefit of the Scottish army's presence
on English soil. Eeluctantly, therefore, the King gave his
consent to the transference of the negotiations, first from
Eipon to York, and then from York to London. It having
been thus agreed to adjourn the final negotiations to London,
and the preliminary articles having been signed by his
Majesty (Oct. 27), the Great Council broke up (Oct. 28),
barely in time for the meeting of the English Parliament in
the following week.1
No one can have felt more bitterly the untoward turn
which affairs had taken than poor Laud. All this time he
had been in London, conducting, with Juxon, Finch, Arundel,
Cottington, and Windebank, the necessary Privy Council
business during the King's absence. Every entry in his
singular Diary from the time of the King's departure to that
of his return testifies to the old man's restlessness and
anxiety. Thus, " Aug. 2 2 : A vile libel brought me, found
" in Covent Garden, animating the apprentices and soldiers
" to fall upon me in the King's absence." Again, more than
once in September and October, there are entries of what he
had heard the Scots were threatening against him in the
North, or riotous Brownists crying out against him in the
streets of London. Lastly, there is this entry, the most
characteristic of all, on the day when the King was signing
the articles with the Scots at York: "Oct. 27, Tuesday,
" Simon and Jude's Eve, I went into my upper study, to see
" some manuscripts, which I was sending to Oxford. In that
" study hung my picture, taken from the life ; and, coming
" in, I found it fallen down upon the face, and lying on the
" floor, the string being broken by which it was hanged
" against the wall. I am almost every day threatened with
1 Rush worth, III. 1255 et seq. and 1286 appears that the resolution of the
— 1306 ; Burnet's Lives of the Hamil- King for a Great Council of the Peers
tons, 222—224 ; Baillie, 263 ; and Pa- was formed as early as Aug. 31.
pers in S. P. 0. — from one of which it
1639-40.] CALLING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 145
" my ruin in Parliament ; God grant this be no omen ! "
There is also in the State Paper Office a little scrap of
writing, in Laud's hand, much corrected, erased, and inter-
lined, which it is very touching now to handle and to read.
It is a draft of his Archiepiscopal prayer for the opening of
the new Parliament, and is as follows : —
" O jEternall God and Mer. Father, as it hath pleased thee to
putt his Majestye's hart to Assemble a Parlament for the better
settleinge of his affaires both at home and abroad, soe I most
humblye beseech thee to bless this great Assemblye, and all their
counsells, to ye good both of the Kinge and his people. And to
thiss end, Good L : , give the Kinge a Hart of judgment to all y*
for his people becomes a good, a gracious, a just, a pious, and a
prudent Kinge, and give the Parlament a hart of Dewtye to doe all
yl towards ye Kinge which becomes an obedient, a Religious, a
moderate, a free, and a wise people : That the K. and his peo.,
meeting with these affections, maye go on with mutual comfort and
contentment, to ye great honor of ye Kinge, ye saftye of ye King-
dome, and ye settlement of true Religion, to the finall extirpation
both of superstition and schisme, and ye upholdinge of ye true and
meere worship of God in ye land. O, L : grant this, even for Jesus
Ch : his sake : Amen."
VOL. II
BOOK II.
NOVEMBER 1640— AUGUST 1642.
IfISTOftY:—FiEST Two -AND -TWENTY MONTHS OF THE LONG
PARLIAMENT.
BIOGRA PR Y. •— MILTON IN ALDERSGATE STREET: His ANTI-
EPISCOPAL PAMPHLETS.
CHAPTER I.
MEETING OP THE LONG PARLIAMENT — ITS COMPOSITION AND CHIEFS —
NINE MONTHS OF GENERAL PARLIAMENTARY ACTION (NOV. 1640
AUG. 1641) THE ENGLISH CHURCH REFORM MOVEMENT.
ON Tuesday the 3rd of November 1640 the Long Parliament
met in Westminster. Imagination can yet retrace the sites
of the two old Houses in the great area covered by the archi-
tecture of the present edifices. The old House of Lords
was a building at the south end of Westminster Hall,
and parallel with the river. The old Commons' House, St.
Stephen's Chapel, was a long, narrow building of the four-
teenth century, in a rich ecclesiastical style, at right angles to
Westminster Hall, with the entrance at its west end, where
it adjoined the Hall, and a large window at the other end.
The formalities of the opening of the Parliament were more
sombre than usual The King, having no heart for a pro-
cession through the streets, went in his barge from Whitehall
to Westminster Stairs. Thence, about one o'clock, accom-
panied by the Lords, who had joined him there, he went
through Westminster Hall to the Abbey to hear a sermon from
the Bishop of Bristol ; after which, having come to the Lords'
House, and having sent for the Commons, he delivered an
opening speech, and called upon Lord Keeper Finch to deliver
another, explaining his views more at large. The Commons
then returned to their own House ; where, upon the motion
of Secretary Sir Henry Vane, the leading ministerial member
in that House, they unanimously elected for their Speaker
William Lenthall, Esq., one of the members for Woodstock.
He was a Lincoln's Inn barrister of some small note, who had
been selected by the King at the last moment for the Speaker-
150 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
ship, instead of a more eminent lawyer who had failed to
obtain a seat. Already, in the earlier part of the day, the
Commons had gone through the ceremony of hearing the
writ for the Parliament read, and the names of the members
that had been returned called over, by Thomas Willys, Esq.,
the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. His deputy, Agar,
Milton's brother-in-law, may have been in attendance upon
him on such an occasion. During the preceding week or
two, at all events, Agar and his subordinates in the Crown
Office had been unusually busy with the issue of the writs
and with other work connected with the opening of the Parlia-
ment.1
COMPOSITION OF THE TWO HOUSES.
The reader may have seen, at the entrance to the rooms of
some Club or Society, a collection of photographs of its more
prominent members hung up in one frame. The following is
not quite such a frame of photographs, but it may serve a
similar purpose. It may be glanced through now for some
preliminary general impressions, and it may be referred to
afterwards on occasion : —
I. THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
The Peers of England summoned to this Parliament were 150
in number ; — to wit, 26 Spiritual Peers (the two Archbishops and
24 Bishops) ; and 124 Temporal Peers, of whom one (George
Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham) was an English Duke, one
(John Paulet, 5th Marquis of Winchester) was an English Marquis,
63 were Earls, 5 were Viscounts, and 54 were Barons. The following
distribution represents the House at the time of its assembling : —
I. The Episcopal Bench. Although two Archbishops had been
summoned, the death of Neile of York, only three days before the
Parliament met, left LAUD for the time the sole Archbishop. Of
the four-and-twenty bishops who had been summoned most are
already known to us. They were JUXON of London, JOHN OWEN of
St. Asaph, EGBERTS of Bangor, PIERCE of Bath and Wells, SKINNER
of Bristol, DUPPA of Chichester, MAINWARING of St. David's,
WREN of Ely, HALL of Exeter, GOODMAN of Gloucester, COKE of
Hereford, WRIGHT of Lichfield and Coventry, WILLIAMS of Lincoln,
MORGAN OWEN of Llandaff, MONTAGU of Norwich, BANCROFT
of Oxford, TOWERS of Peterborough, WARNER of Rochester,
DAVENANT of Salisbury, CURLE of Winchester, THORNBOROUGH of
i Kushworth, IV. 1,
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF LORDS. 151
Worcester, POTTER of Carlisle, BRIDGMAN of Chester, and MORTON
of Durham. Of these twenty-four, however, several, from age
or other reasons, never took their seats ; Mainwaring refrained, as
being under the ban of previous Parliaments ; and three died very
soon after the opening of the Parliament : viz. the unpopular
Bancroft in February 1640-41 ; the more unpopular Montagu
on the 13th of April 1641 ; and the popular and Calvinistic
Davenant on the 20th of April, "of a consumption," says his
nephew Fuller, "to which the sorrowful times did contribute not
a little." As the vacant sees were not at once filled up, the
Episcopal strength in the House, when the work was becoming
warm, consisted but of about 18 bishops. Even of these some, like
Laud himself, were from the first hors de combat, as persons under
trial. After Davenant's death, the bishop whose antecedents were
likeliest to give him favour with the public was Potter of Carlisle,
who was called the " Puritanical bishop." But, though he attended
Parliament till his death, Jan. 1641-2, his part was not a leading
one. Morton of Durham, who had long been a pillar of the Church,
and by no means a Laudian, was now, though in his seventy-
seventh year, to come forward conspicuously. Warner of Rochester,
also, who had been a bishop only since 1637, and was twenty years
younger than Morton, was to make himself heard. Undoubtedly,
however, the two bishops about whose conduct in the Parlia-
ment there was most expectation, after the Laudians had been
placed hors de combat, were Hall of Exeter and Williams of
Lincoln. Of HALL and the state of his mind we have
recently had a glimpse. His Episcopacy by Divine Right, which
had been in circulation eight or nine months when the Parlia-
ment met, had not improved his relations with the Puritans. But
WILLIAMS? For this irrepressible Welshman, who has already
figured so much in these pages, the calling of the Long Parliament
was to be a resurrection to life. Even in the Tower he had not
held his tongue. What line would he take now that he was again
at liberty and in Parliament 1 No one could tell. His friend Dr.
Hacket, indeed, had heard him say in the Tower that he had no
fancy for " a Scotch Reformation wherein the harebrains would be
engaged along with the Scots." But it was not easy to calculate
upon Williams. For the Laudians his reappearance was like the
intimation of Richard's return to King John in Ivanhoe, "The
Devil is loose." He first took his seat in the Parliament on the
16th of November. He was then fifty-seven years of age.1
i Racket's Life of Williams, Part II. to convict of mistake a letter to Con way
p. 137, ftc. ; and Lords Journals, Nov. in the 8. P. 0. of date May 4, 1640
16, 1640, where it is distinctly stated (i.e. the day before the dissolution of
that Williams, then a prisoner in the the Short Parliament), where I find this
Tower, but summoned by writ to the passage: "This Monday the Bitthop of
hirliament under condition of bail to Lincoln was delivered out of the
the King to return to prison when Tower: the same evening ho wont to
Parliament should be over, was that Lambeth."
day sent for by the Lords. This seems
152 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
II. Lay Ministerial Peers. Under this modern designation I
include all the lay-peers who were of the Privy Council or held
great state-offices. With Laud and Juxon, they represented "Go-
vernment," as we should now say, in the Upper House. At their
head was STRAFFORD, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland ; next after whom
may be named FINCH, the Lord Keeper and occupant of the Wool-
sack, the MARQUIS of HAMILTON (sitting as Earl of Cambridge), and
LORD COTTINGTON, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Master of
the Court of Wards. Other ministers, known to us as such since
1632,1 were the EARL of MANCHESTER, Lord Privy Seal ; the EARL
of LINDSEY, Lord Great Chamberlain ; the EARL of ARUNDEL and
SURREY, Earl Marshal ; the EARL of PEMBROKE and MONTGOMERY,
Lord Chamberlain; the EARL of DORSET, Lord Chamberlain to the
Queen ; the EARL of HOLLAND ; the EARL of BRIDGEWATER, Lord
President of Wales; the EARL of SALISBURY; the EARL of SUF-
FOLK ; and LORD NEWBURGH. Peers who had been added to the
Council since 1632 were these : the young DUKE of LENNOX (sitting
as an English Earl) ; the EARL of NORTHUMBERLAND, Lord High
Admiral; the EARL of BERKSHIRE; LORD GORING, Vice-Chamber-
lain of the Household; and the EARL of NEWCASTLE, Governor of
the Prince of Wales. As this last peer is the only one of whom
we have not had occasion to take some account already, a word or
two about him may be here added : — Two Cavendishes, descendants
of Wolsey's faithful attendant and biographer, had been raised, in
the reign of James, from the position of country -gentlemen to
English peerages : William Cavendish, made Baron Hardwick, Co.
Derby, in 1605, and then Earl of Devonshire in 1618 ; and another
William Cavendish, his nephew, who, having nobly entertained
James at his seat of Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, was created
Baron Ogle in 1619, and Viscount Mansfield in the following year.
This second Cavendish, who had acquired great wealth through his
marriage, and was but a young man when James died, was created
Earl of Newcastle by Charles in 1628. He had lived through the
period of " Thorough " with a great reputation for loyalty and for
splendid hospitality in those northern parts of England where his
estates chiefly lay. An entertainment which he had given to
Charles at Welbeck on his coronation-journey to Scotland in 1633,
and another which he had given to the King and Queen at Bolsover
Castle in 1634, were remembered as the costliest things of the kind
ever known, and have left some trace of themselves in literary
history in the form of the two masques written for them by Ben
Jonson. The Earl of Newcastle, indeed, was Ben's principal
patron in his old age, and Ben had not failed to eulogize the
Earl's accomplishments in verse, particularly his fencing and his
horsemanship. He was also " amorous in poetry and music," says
Clarendon, "to which he indulged the greatest part of his time."
•Hence, in 1638, he had been thought the fittest person to be
i See Vol. I. pp. 377—383.
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF LORDS. 153
appointed Governor to the Prince of Wales, then eight years of
age. He had subscribed handsomely to the two Scottish wars, and
had raised a magnificent troop of horse, composed wholly of gentle-
men of property, and called " the Prince of Wales's own troop."
A question of precedency connected with this troop had caused a
deadly quarrel between him and the Earl of Holland. He was now
forty-eight years of age, and had two sons and four daughters.1
III. General Body of the Peers. A few of this body, who were
either already conspicuous before the Long Parliament met, or who
were to become conspicuous in its proceedings, may be here enume-
rated. The ten whom we place first were the Peers who, of those
that were expected to be Parliamentary leaders of the popular cause,
most amply fulfilled that expectation; the others follow in no
particular order : —
FRANCIS RUSSELL, 4th EARL of BEDFORD. This nobleman, Earl
since 1627, was universally regarded as the chief peer of the
popular party. He owed that distinction partly to his wealth and
his popularity in connexion with a great work for the draining of
the Fen Counties which had been going on since 1630, but in part
also to his character for wisdom. He had sheltered many of the
persecuted Puritan clergy; and, though not of extreme opinions,
and personally on good enough terms with Laud, he desired a more
liberal system of government in Church as well as in State. His
town-house was Bedford House, north of the Strand. Unfortu-
nately he survived the opening of the Parliament only six months.2
ROBERT DEVEREUX, 3rd EARL of ESSEX. Already known to us
as Lieut. -General of the King's forces in the first Scottish war, this
nobleman, now aAat. 48, could look back upon a life calculated to
make any man grave and reserved. Restored, in his childhood, by
James to the honours of his beheaded father, Elizabeth's cele-
brated Essex, he had been educated at Eton and at Oxford, had
been a companion of the popular Prince Henry " in his books and the
great-horse exercise," and had travelled abroad. Returning, in his
early youth, to marry, according to arrangement, the young Frances
Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, he had experienced a fate
which had made him the pity of England. There was the loathing
of his bride, then the lover of the King's Scottish favourite,
Viscount Rochester, afterwards Earl of Somerset; there was the
horrible notoriety of the proceedings for a divorce ; and there was
the divorce itself in 1613. " Perceiving how little he was beholden
to Venus," he had gone abroad to " address himself to the Court of
Mars " ; and he was serving in the Low Countries when England was
again ringing with the name of his divorced wife, then on her trial,
together with her new husband, Somerset, for the murder of Sir
Thomas Overbury. He remained abroad for the most part while
1 Collina's Peerage by Brydges and Life by Clifford,
(under Duke* of DevotuJnre) ; Collina's * Collirwa Peerage by Brydges;
English Baronage (1727) ; Clarendon, Clarendon, 63, 73, WJ.
32, 50, 108, &c. ; Ben Jonaon's Works,
154 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the condemned couple were in prison ; from which James released
them in 1624. It was while he was serving in the Palatinate war
that he became imbued with those Calvinistic principles which he
professed during the rest of his life. After his return he had
ventured on a second marriage (1630-31), with the daughter of a
Wiltshire knight. This marriage, however, was speedily followed
by a separation on the same ground that had been pleaded by the
first wife. Avoiding the Court since then, he had lived much in
the country, occupied with books and field-sports, and patronizing
Quarles, Wither, and other Calvinistic poets ; till Charles, hoping
to have the use of his military experience, called him to a com-
mand in the first Scottish war. According to Clarendon, his
private hatred to the whole Scottish nation, on Somerset's account,
would have reconciled him to such a post, if Charles had known
how to treat him. But Charles's coldness, in contrast with the
respect shown him by the Scottish leaders, had cured him of any
disposition to abet the King's policy ; and, before the opening of
the Long Parliament, the Scots, as well as the English Puritans, had
great hopes from him. Despite the nature of his misfortunes, no
man was more popular or more respected. He was somewhat
"stern and solemn" in appearance, but "affable and gentle"
enough ; with no great gift of eloquence, but of superior abilities.
His town-residence was Essex House in the Strand, where he had
been born. His first wife had died in 1632, but Somerset was still
alive. An only daughter of the criminal pair had married the Earl
of Bedford's eldest son, Lord Russell.1
ROBERT RICH, 2nd EARL of WARWICK. Though the elder
brother of Holland, he was identified with the popular party.
"A man of pleasant and companionable wit and conversation, of
an universal jollity, and such a licence in his words and in his
actions that a man of less virtue could not be found out " ; yet
in such high credit with the Puritans, owing to his liberality
with his money, and "his being present with them at their de-
votions," as to have obtained " the style of a godly man " : such
is Clarendon's character of ' him. Less prejudiced historians
recognise in him the elements of "an essentially manly character,"
with something of the sailor's frankness and laxness, his profes-
sion being that of the navy. His residence, Warwick House, in
Holborn, was a rendezvous for distressed Puritan ministers. He
was in his fifty-sixth year.2
OLIVER ST. JOHN, 1st EARL of BOLINGBROKE. Succeeding his
father, in 1618, as 4th Lord St. John of Bletsho, this nobleman
had been created Earl of Bolingbroke in 1624. Decidedly, though
not in a flashing way, he was of the liberal party.
1 Collins's Peerage by Brydges, under 2 Collins's Peerage by Brydges, IX.
Devereux, Vise. Hereford ; Brydges's 400 ; Brydges's Peers of James I. 330
Peers of James I. p. 96 et seq. ; Wood's — 333 ; Clarendon, 374 ; and Sanford's
Athense, III. 189, 197 ; and Clarendon, Studies of the Great Rebellion (1858),
57, 74, 191, 373, 444 &c. p. 288.
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF LORDS. 155
HENRY GREY, 1st EARL of STAMFORD. The branch of the
ancient and much-ramified family of the Greys of which this peer
was representative had formerly held almost the highest rank in
the realm. His great-grandfather, Lord John Grey, had been
the brother of that Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, and finally
Duke of Suffolk, who was the father of Lady Jane Grey. On the
execution of his brother, which followed that of his sister, this
Lord John Grey had become the head of the family ; but, as its
honours had been attainted, he transmitted no peerage. His son,
however, had been readmitted to the peerage by James (1603) as
Lord Grey of Groby ; and his grandson, succeeding him in 1614,
had been advanced to the earldom of Stamford in 1628. It was
thought that " this partial restoration of honours very little satis-
fied the fallen family of Grey " ; and on some such vague principle
people were to account for the vehement anti-royalism both of the
Earl of Stamford and of his son Lord Grey of Groby in the Long
Parliament and throughout the Civil War.1
WILLIAM FIENNES, 1st VISCOUNT SAVE AND SELE. Born in 1583,
of a family the heads of which had been barons since the Conquest,
he had been Viscount since 1624. He was a Puritan of the most
pronounced cast, — a rarity, in this respect, among the English
peers. "Of close and reserved nature," "proud, morose, and
sullen," " of a mean and narrow fortune, of great parts, and of the
highest ambition," "conversing much with books," is Clarendon's
account of him ; and the name " Old Subtlety," given him by
Anthony Wood, hits off well the general impression of him enter-
tained by his opponents. " The logicals and philosophical " had
been his favourite studies at Oxford, and for astuteness and per-
sistency of intellect he was thought all but unmatched. That he
was bold as well as wary had been proved by his resisting the
ship-money tax at the same time as Hampden, and subsequently
by his positive refusal to aid in the war against the Scots. He and
Hampden were supposed to " steer all the designs " of the more ad-
vanced portion of the Puritan party ; and his house at Broughton in
Oxfordshire had long been a place where secret meetings were held
and plots hatched. " There was," says Wood, " a room there where
there would be great noises and talkings heard," though the servants
durst not go near it. In whatever correspondence there had been
between the English Puritans and the Scottish Covenanters Saye and
Sele had been a principal. He was now fifty-seven years of age.2
EDWARD MONTAGU, LORD KIMBOLTON. Known also by his
courtesy-title of Viscount Mandeville, this nobleman, now (ttat. 37,
was the eldest son of the Earl of Manchester, Lord Privy Seal.
Educated at Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, he had, from his
father's position, been much about the Court, and had accompanied
i Collins'* Peerage by Brydges, III. 22 et **/ ; Wood's Athena, III. 516 et
352-9 ; and Peers of Jamea I. 83, 84. «*?. ; Clarendon, 73 and 375.
* Collina'B Peerage by Brydges, VII.
156 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Charles to Spain. He had been a member of the Commons in
Charles's early Parliaments, but had been raised to the peerage, as
Lord Kimbolton, in his father's life -time, by an act of special
favour. This honour he perhaps owed to his marriage with a rela-
tive of the Duke of Buckingham ; but, on her death, he had married
a daughter of the Earl of Warwick. This connexion had detached
him from the Court, and mixed him so much with the Puritans
that it was a subject for gossip how the Earl of Manchester, the
King's minister, could have two sons of such diverse tendencies, —
Mandeville or Kimbolton, all for the Puritans, and the younger
son, Walter Montagu, a Roman Catholic convert and fanatic.
" No man," says Clarendon, speaking of Kimbolton, " was more in
the confidence of the discontented and factious party than he, and
none to whom the whole mass of their designs, as well what
remained in chaos as what was formed, more entirely communi-
cated." Being of free and generous habits, he had got largely into
debt, in expectation of his succession to his father ; his life had not
been by any means " conformable to the rigour of his party," if
Clarendon is to be believed ; but, according to the same authority,
he was of such real goodness of disposition that nothing could
spoil him, and of such urbanity and high breeding that all liked
him. His town-house was in Chelsea.1
PHILIP, 4th LORD WHARTON. This young nobleman, cetat. 27,
had succeeded to the title in his boyhood, and had manifested
Puritan opinions since he had had any to manifest. Much was
expected of him, particularly from his high moral qualities.2
ROBERT GREVILLE, 2nd LORD BROOKE. Born in 1607, and
therefore now cetat. 33, this nobleman had been carefully educated
by his relative, the celebrated philosophical poet and politician,
Fulke Greville, 1st Lord Brooke, whom he succeeded in 1628.
His education, and his marriage with Lady Catherine Russell,
eldest daughter of the Earl of Bedford, had determined his natural
bias towards the popular side ; and, with the exception of Lord
Saye and Sele, there was no peer more resolutely opposed to
Charles's arbitrary policy in Church and State. He had even
purposed to emigrate to New England with Saye and Sele ; and he
had stood by Saye and Sele in the protest against the Scottish war.
In reach and depth of intellect he was considered equal to " Old
Subtlety " himself, while he had more fervour and enthusiasm.3
EDWARD, LORD HOWARD of ESCRICK. He was a younger son of
Thomas, 1st Earl of Suffolk, and, in the time of the Duke of
Buckingham's ascendency, had married a niece of his, and had, in
consequence, been made a baron in his own right (1628). "But,
" that dependence being at an end, his wife dead, and he without
" any virtue to promote himself," says Clarendon, " he withdrew
1 Collins's Peerage by Brydges, II. Kebellion, 289, 290.
57 et seq. ; and Clarendon, 73, 74, and 3 Collins's Peerage by Brydges, IV.
374. 351 et seq. ; Sanford, p. 290 ; and Wal-
2 Sanford 's Studies of the Great pole's Royal and Noble Authors.
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF LORDS. 15V
" himself from following the Court, and, shortly after, from wish-
" ing it well, and had now delivered himself up, body and soul, to
" be disposed of by that party which appeared most adverse and
" obnoxious to the Court and the Government." l
JOHN DIOBY, 1st EARL of BRISTOL. The antecedents of this
nobleman, now cetat. 60, were such that almost necessarily he took,
at the opening of the Long Parliament, a front rank in the oppo-
sition. It was fourteen years since he had been foiled in his trial of
strength with Buckingham, and disgraced by Charles for alleged
misconduct in his Spanish embassy; and now he had the oppor-
tunity for revenge. For a time, but only for a time, he seemed
inclined to use it. According to Clarendon, he was a man of grave
aspect and real ability, but self-willed and supercilious, and too
" voluminous " in his talk.2
WILLIAM SEYMOUR, llth EARL of HERTFORD. Neither had this
nobleman, now between fifty and sixty years of age, much reason to
take part with the Court. The romantic story of his youth was in
the memory of all. It was remembered how, when only Mr. William
Seymour, 2nd son of Lord Beauchamp, he had secretly married the
Lady Arabella Stuart, the cousin of King James; how, on the
discovery of the marriage, he had been placed in the Tower and the
lady in private custody ; how in 1611 the two lovers planned a
simultaneous escape to the Continent; how, the vessel in which
Lady Arabella was having been captured, she was retaken and
imprisoned in the Tower which he had just left ; and how, while
he lived abroad disconsolate, the poor imprisoned lady became
insane and died. Permitted then to return to England, and
becoming, by the deaths of his elder brother and his father, heir to
the earldom of Hertford, he had married, for his second wife, a
sister of the Earl of Essex, and had lived habitually in the country ;
a nobleman of " great fortune, honour, and interest," says Clarendon,
" of very good parts and conversant in books, both in the Latin
and Greek languages," but wholly given up to ease and indolence.
The events of 1639-40 had brought him out a little. He had been
one of the liberal lords who petitioned Charles at York for a
Parliament, and he was also one of the Commissioners for the
Scottish treaty. It was fully expected that he would act in the
opposition along with his brother-in-law, Essex, for whom he had a
great regard.3
THOMAS WRIOTHESLEY, EARL of SOUTHAMPTON. This peer, now
cetat. 31, was the son of Shakespeare's Earl of Southampton, to
whom the Venus and Adonis and Lucrece had been dedicated. He
had succeeded his father in 1624. "A great man in all respects,"
" of a nature much inclined to melancholy," says Clarendon of him,
adding that he was a ready and weighty speaker in any sudden
debate. As " he had never had any conversation in the Court, or
» Clarendon, Hint. 119. * Peer* of Jame« I. pp. 800—307
« Collina, V. 362 ; Clarendon, 370. and Clarendon, 170, 171, 369.
158 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
obligation to it, but, on the contrary, had undergone some hardship
from it," it was anticipated that he would be in the opposition ;
but, though he had strong opinions as to the illegality of much that
Charles and Strafford had done, Charles was to find in him ere
long one of his truest friends.1
WILLIAM CAVENDISH, 3rd EAKL of DEVONSHIRE. This young
peer, now cetat. 22, had succeeded his father in 1628 ; shortly after
which his mother had sent him abroad under the tutorship of Thomas
Hobbes, who had been his father's tutor twenty years before, and
had ever since been attached to the family. He had returned from his
travels with Hobbes in 1637-8, to enter on the duties of his rank.2
PHILIP DORMER, 1st EARL of CARNARVON. Hitherto occupied
chiefly with " those looser exercises of pleasure, hunting, hawking,
and the like, in which the nobility of that time too much de-
lighted," this nobleman had a certain force of character and
capacity which was to show itself in the King's cause.3
JAMES STANLEY, LORD STRANGE (afterwards 7th Earl of Derby).
The son and heir of William, 6th Earl of Derby, this nobleman had
been a peer in his own right, as Baron Strange, since 1628, and, by
reason of his father's age and infirmities, Earl of Derby in all but
the name since 1637, when the management of the family-estates
had been made over to him. The acquisition and settlement of
these estates, through a series of complicated lawsuits, in which the
Countess -Dowager Derby of the Arcades and her daughters had
borne a part, had been no small part of the business of the 6th
Earl's life ; but all had at length been arranged, and not only
the ancient seats of Latham and Knowsley, with vast lands in
Lancashire, Cumberland, Cheshire and Yorkshire, but also the
lordship of the Isle of Man, held by former Earls of Derby as
"Kings of Man," were now the property of the earldom, and
consequently of Lord Strange. He was a man, according to
Clarendon, of "great honour and clear courage," only too haughty
and imperious, from having lived too little amongst equals. His
wife, a fit match for such a spirit, was Charlotte de la Tremouille,
daughter of Claude de la Tremouille, duke of Thouars, peer of
France, by his wife Charlotte, daughter of William I. of Orange
and Charlotte of Bourbon. Both the husband and the wife were
to be known by their brave deeds for Charles.4
Among the other peers may be noted EDWARD SHEFFIELD, 1st
EARL of MULGRAVE (an aged peer who had been in service in
Elizabeth's reign) ; THEOPHILUS DE CLINTON, 9th EARL of LINCOLN
(whose wife was a daughter of Viscount Saye and Sele) ; GEORGE
MANNERS, 8th EARL of RUTLAND (who lived but to March 1641-2) ;
THOMAS LEIGH, 1st LORD DUNSMORE (father-in-law of the Earl of
Southampton); WILLIAM PAGET, 5th LORD PAGET; and THOMAS
1 Peers of James I. 326-7 ; and 3 Nicolas's Hist. Peerage ; and Clar.
Clarendon, 369-70. 430.
2 Collins's Peerage by Brydges. 4 Collins's Peerage ; and Clar. 766.
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF COMMONS. 159
SVVILE, 1st LORD SAVILE of POMFRET (an enemy of Strafford for
family reasons). All these had signed the York petition for the
Parliament They therefore at least began in the Parliament as
"liberals." To be known more or less on the one side or the
other were also these : ROBERT PIERREPOINT, 1st EARL of KINGSTON
(related to the Cavendishes of Newcastle and Devonshire) ; SPENCER
COMPTON, 2nd EARL of NORTHAMPTON (cetat. 39) ; HENRY BOUCHIER,
5th EARL of BATH ; JOHN HOLLES, 3rd EARL of CLARE (brother-
in-law of Strafford); THOMAS BELLASIS, 1st LORD FAUCONBERG
(cetat. 63) ; and WILLIAM GREY, 1st LORD GREY of WARE.
II. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
In Rushworth's list of the original members of the Commons'
House in the Long Parliament their number is given as exactly
500. Of these 91 were members for counties, 405 were members
for boroughs (London returning 4 members), and 4 were members
for the two Universities.1
I. Ministerial Members. Most of the King's ministers or Privy
Councillors were in the Upper House ; but there were several in
the Commons. Chief of these were the two Secretaries of State,—
SIR FRANCIS WINDEBANK (one of the members for Corfe Castle),
and SIR HENRY VANE (one of the members for Wilton). Winde-
bank was faithful to the King and Laud ; but Vane had been
veering round in the last Scottish war, and had been one of the
petitioners for a Parliament. Mr. EDWARD NICHOLAS, one of the
clerks of the Council (member for Newton, Hants), may be likewise
mentioned as a ministerial member. The only other properly
ministerial members of the House were SIR THOMAS JERMYN,
Comptroller of the Household (one of the members for Bury St. Ed-
mund's), SIR EDWARD LITTLETON, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
(one of the members for Staffordshire), and SIR EDWARD HERBERT,
Solicitor-General (one of the members for Old Sarum). SIR JOHN
BANKS, the Attorney-General, was not a member of the Commons,
but sat by writ in the Upper House, attending the Lord Keeper.
II. General Body of the Members. It ought distinctly to be
understood that the members of the Commons' House in this most
revolutionary, as it was to prove, of English Parliaments, were not,
> Rushworth, IV. 1—11. From the From this lost list it appears (unless
changes that happened in the Long I have erred in the troublesome task
Parliament from time to time, it is difli- of counting through thirty columns
cult in some cases to determine who of names, and omitting always those
were mem bora at any one time. Mr. marked t) that the roll of the House.
Carlyle gives an elaborated list for when formally complete, contained
the whole duration of the Parliament 508 members. It was not till some
(Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, edit. little time after the first day of rnoet-
1857, Appendix to Vol. II.) ; Mr. San- ing that the House was thus perfectly
ford jfives another (Studies of the Great constituted. There had to bo fresh oloc-
Rebellion, 270 — 282) ; and there is a tions in certain counties and boroughs,
v.-ry full and instructive list in the —the first elections having boon do-
1'arliaraentary History, II. 599—629. clared void for this or that reason.
160 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
as is often supposed by persons ignorant of History, a mere col-
lection of political adventurers from all the ends of society. They
were the very flower of the English gentry and the English legal
profession. Some of them were peers' sons ; many of them were
knights or baronets ; almost all of them were men of estate and
education ; and very few of them were of the class that would now
be called commercial. Farther, it is to be remembered that, if they
were not, on the average of their whole number, superior intel-
lectually to a modern House of Commons, they formed collectively
a larger proportion of the best intellect of the country than is
looked for now in a House of Commons. Now-a-days, when the
talent of the country is so multiform, and may be absorbed in a
thousand occupations unconnected with Parliament, it is but a
small proportion of it that comes within the walls of St. Stephen's.
Perhaps also, now-a-days, it is a necessary consequence of the nature
of Parliamentary business that a very moderate proportion of the
total talent of the country, and that proportion working at but
a moderate pitch of intensity, suffices for the performance of the
business. The exceptions will be in times of great national
exigency, when there may be a rush of the very best minds to
the rescue. But in those days not only could a larger relative
proportion of the energy and talent of England be within Par-
liament, and not only were more of the interests of English life
locked up in the procedure of Parliament, but the nature of the
Parliamentary work in hand roused the energy and talent engaged
in it to a higher state of tension. It was then, to a great extent, a
work of life and death. The policy a man pursued in Parliament,
the votes he gave in it, might lead, as he knew, to his imprison-
ment, the ruin of his family, or even his death on the scaffold in
some hour of retribution. In our changed times we have almost
lost the power of estimating, by any experience of our own, the
effect of this sense of actual life-and-death risk upon a politician's
public conduct. With these remarks, let us proceed to
glance at the heads that were to be the most remarkable, in one
way or another, among the five hundred that assembled in St.
Stephen's in November 1640. Very many of them, it may be
added, were not there for the first time, but had been in the Short
Parliament of the same year, or in Charles's earlier Parliaments, or
in some of the Parliaments of James.
JOHN PYM (Tavistock),1 cetat. 56. Beyond all question this is the
name that ought to stand first in the present list. Pym's fame,
indeed, was not now to make. He had served in the last Parlia-
ment of James, and in all Charles's, and with such energy that,
since Eliot's death, the leadership of the popular cause had been
universally assigned to him. Not sleeping, but on the watch,
through the weary years of " Thorough," he had resumed his proper
1 There were two members for this here, and in the following paragraphs,
borough, as for almost all boroughs and insert simply the name of borough or
shires ; but, to avoid repetition, I county.
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT : HOUSE OK COMMONS. 161
place in the Short Parliament as the orator of the opposition ; and,
in the intervening months, he had been consulting with Bedford,
Saye and Sele, Mandeville and others, corresponding with the
Scottish leaders, and stirring up the citizens of London to their
petition for another Parliament. This petition he had himself
carried to York. So entirely did he rule the House now assembled
that he came to be called " King Pym " by the courtiers. Claren-
don's testimony is that not only had he " the greatest influence in
the House of any man," but he was "the most popular man and
the ablest to do hurt " that had ever been in an English Parliament.
" He had," says the same authority, " a comely and grave way of
expressing himself, with great volubility of words, natural and
proper"; to which I may add, on the faith of his preserved
speeches, that the characteristic of his eloquence was earnest and
business-like impressiveness rather than brilliance. In the best
portrait I have seen of him (after a miniature by Cooj)er) there is a
calm English massiveness of head and face, with something of a
settled seriousness, verging on sorrow. He had vowed to break
the neck of the oppression on his country. He had also fixed ideas
as to the means. His leading principle, — and it marks his exact
place in the Revolution, — was that of the necessity of establishing
the supremacy and inviolability of Parliament. In respect of the
immediate changes to be striven for in Church and State, he was,
though perhaps in advance of the Earl of Bedford, by no means
of " furious dispositions." Somersetshire has the honour of having
produced Pym, and he had been educated at Oxford. He had been
a widower since 1620. One of his sons had been with him in the
Short Parliament, and another was to be in the Long Parliament
after his father's death. Till the meeting of Parliament Pym's
usual town-lodging had been in Gray's Inn Lane ; but he had re-
moved to "a lodging at Sir Richard Manley's house in a little
court behind Westminster Hall." Here Hampden and others met
daily to consult with him at a table kept at their joint expense.1
JOHN HAMPDEN (co. Bucks), cetat. 46. By birth a very wealthy
gentleman of Buckinghamshire, and a cousin of Oliver Cromwell,
Hampden, like Pym, brought with him the experience of former
Parliaments, and a reputation for patriotism acquired in them. He
had been an especial friend of Eliot, whose two sons he took charge
of during their father's fatal imprisonment. During the period
of " Thorough " he had lived mainly in retirement ; and what
remains of his corresi>ondence during this period reveals a character
of unusual piety, conscientiousness, gentleness, and self-command,
with a certain graceful and accomplished suavity of phrase, de-
scribed by Clarendon as "a flowing courtesy to all men." Beneath
all, however, there slept an English courage, and a depth of exhaust-
less machination in aid of that courage. He came forward to fight
1 \VM,Hr.sAth.;n:i-.lll.7*J-80;('l:iron- Memoir of Hamixlcn (1854), 183d**/.;
<l'.n'~ lli-t«.ry. 71, :unl 171-.r>; CUron- Former's Lifo of Pym in "BtatMOMO
Life (1759), 41 ; I/ord Nu^unt'H of the Common wealth."
VOL. II M
162 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the ship-money battle in the law-courts, and was ready to spend his
whole fortune in feeing lawyers, and in employing against the Crown
every ingenuity or delay of the law, rather than pay the few shillings
demanded of him. It is his courage that is now thought of when
we speak of Hampden ; but there was a singular agreement among
his contemporaries, both friends and foes, as to his profound crafti-
ness as well. " He was a man," says Clarendon, " of much greater
" cunning [than Pym] and, it may be, of the most discerning spirit,
" and of the greatest address to bring anything to pass which he
" desired, of any man of that time, and who laid the design deepest."
He did not speak often, Clarendon continues, and hardly ever at
the beginning of a question ; but he was a very weighty speaker
when he did speak, and had a peculiar art of coming in at the end
of a debate and summing up so as to turn all to his own conclusion,
or, if that could not be, getting the subject postponed. Also he
had a way of "infusing his own opinions into those from whom he
pretended to learn," and of throwing out ideas in advance of the
moment, so as to be disintegrating theoretically ahead of the
point practically reached. "Of an industry and vigilance," adds
Clarendon, with his fondness for superlatives, "not to be tired
" out by the most laborious, and of parts not to be imposed on
" by the most subtle and sharp, and of a personal courage equal to
" his best parts " ; and again, " He was indeed a very wise man, and
" of great parts, and possessed with the most absolute spirit of
" popularity and the most absolute faculties to govern the people
" of any man I ever knew." Descriptions from other pens convey
the same impressions of Hampden. His face, in the only authentic
portrait of him, is very fine, firm and thoughtful, with a deep
Italian-looking softness in it. He resided in Westminster, to be
near Pyrn ; his second wife, whom he had recently married, being
generally in town with him, while his family by his first wife were
in Bucks.1
DENZIL HOLLES (Dorchester^ cetat. 43. Second son of the late
Earl of Clare and brother of the present Earl, Holies also brought
into the Parliament a reputation earned in preceding ones ; more
particularly on that famous occasion of the dissolution of the Parlia-
ment of 1628-9, when he held Speaker Finch in the chair by
main force while the House passed their " Three Eesolutions " (see
Vol. I. p. 216). He was "as much valued and esteemed by the
" whole party," says Clarendon, "as any man; as he deserved to
" be, being of more accomplished parts than any of them." He
was rather hampered now, though not so much as his brother the
Earl, by the fact that their sister had been Stafford's first wife, and
that they were the uncles of Strafford's children.2
SIR PHILIP STAPLETON, KNT. (Boroughbridge). "A proper man,
" of a fair extraction," so Clarendon introduces him, " who, being a
i Wood's Athen. IV. 59— 62; Claren- Sir Philip Warwick's Memoir (edit,
don, 55, 74, 119, 396 ; Lord Nugent's 1701), p. 240.
Memorials of Hampden ; Forster's Life ; 2 Collins by Brydges.
1640-41.] TIIK LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF COMMONS. hi.11,
" branch of a younger family, inherited but a moderate estate, about
" 500/. the year, in Yorkshire, and, according to the custom of that
*• county, had spent his time in those delights which horses and dogs
" administer." But, having been returned to the Long Parliament,
he in a short time " appeared a man of vigour in body and mind,
" and to be rather without good breeding than not capable of it" l
SIR BENJAMIN RUDYAKD, KNT. (Wilton), ittat. 68. This veteran,
who had served in many Parliaments before, had been, in his younger
days, a wit and courtier ; and his name is associated with that of
Shakespeare's Earl of Pembroke in a volume of verses composed
between them. Ben Jonson had also addressed epigrams to Rud-
yard. He was now a pious and reforming politician.2
WILLIAM STRODE (Beeralston, co. Devon). There is some dis-
pute whether this was the Strode who figured, along with Denzil
Holies, Eliot, Selden, Benjamin Valentine, William Coriton, and
others, in the famous closing scene of the Parliament of 1628-9,
and had been imprisoned in consequence. He is described as "a
young man," and can hardly have been that elder Strode. At all
events he was " one of the fiercest men of his party," according to
Clarendon.8
OLIVER ST. JOHN (Totness), astat. 42. He was the son of a Bed-
fordshire knight, related to the Bolingbroke family, and was a
Lincoln's Inn lawyer. In that profession he had won immense
celebrity as Hampden's counsel in the ship-money case. "He
was," says Clarendon, " a man reserved and of a dark and clouded
countenance, very proud, and conversing with very few, and these
men of his own humour and inclinations." In allusion to his gloomy
looks they called him the "dark-lantern man" of the Puritan
party. He had married, for his second wife, a cousin of Oliver
Cromwell.4
JOHN SELDEN (Oxford University), wtat. 56. The sketch already
given of this great scholar and keen thinker (Vol. L pp. 520 — 525)
will serve for our cognisance of him at his entry into the Long Par-
liament His was certainly one of the weightiest reputations in
the House. That he would be on the side of Reform was augured
by his antecedents in former Parliaments, by his anti-clerical spirit,
and by the motto he had chosen, " Liberty above everything " ; but
his peculiar interpretation of that motto, and his cool and sceptical
temper, were to lead him to a policy rather of varying criticism of
both parties than of thoroughgoing devotion to either.
NATHANIEL FIENNES (Banbury), ntat. 32. This celebrated
member, the second son of Viscount Saye and Sele, was regarded
as a milder edition of his father, — equally thoroughgoing in his
1 Clarendon, Ili-t. 119. Members," 198, and "Grand Remon-
« Wood's Athon. III. 456 et «cy. strance," 187—189. Wood's date, 1578,
» Wood's Athon. III. 176— 178; Fore- for tho birth of Mu Strode, must bo
ter's Hint, and Biog. Essays (1868), an error.
I. 20, 21 ; Sanford's Studies, 896- * Clarendon, 74, 75 ; and Carlyle'n
400; Forster's "Arrest of the Five Crom well (odit. 1857), I. 77-79.
164 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Puritanism, but personally more prepossessing. He came to be
called "Young Subtlety." Educated at Winchester and Oxford,
he had travelled in Switzerland and in Scotland, making Calvinistic
observations. He was an especial companion of Hampden.
"Broad face, bluntish nose, hair brown and sleeked over the
forehead," are my notes from a portrait of him.1
SIR ARTHUR, HASELRIG, BART. (co. Leicester). He was an intimate
friend of Fiennes and worked with him in Parliament. He had
been married twice, — his second wife being a sister of Lord Brooke.2
He was of " a rude and stubborn nature," according to Clarendon ;
which means that he was very resolute and of extreme political
opinions.
FRANCIS Eous (Truro), cetat. 61. A zealous Puritan of former
Parliaments, and known by various pious writings, Rous had not
yet given to the world the production by which he ought now to be
best known : viz. his metrical version of the Psalms. A portrait of
him which I have seen presents him with grey hair and beard, a
large round hat on, and his eyes near together.3
OLIVER CROMWELL (Cambridge), cetat. 42. Though this was
Cromwell's third Parliament, he entered it a comparatively undis-
tinguished man. He was known, however, in the Fen-counties,
where he had been residing (at Ely since 1636) as a zealous
gentleman -farmer of Puritan principles. He was a cousin of
Hampden and of Waller, and related to St. John the Lawyer and
others in the House ; and Hampden could certify that he was no
ordinary man, but "would set well at the mark." If his letter,
written two years before, to his cousin, St. John's wife, could have
been produced, it would have given a better idea of him than any-
thing else. " I live, you know where," he had there said in reply
to some letter of the lady expressing admiration and affection for
him, — " in Meshec, which they say signifies Prolonging ; in Kedar,
' which signifies Blackness ; yet the Lord forsaketh me not. Though
* He do prolong, yet He will, I trust, bring me to His tabernacle,
' to His resting-place. My soul is with the congregation of the
' First-born, my body rests in hope ; and, if here I may honour my
' God either by doing or by suffering, I shall be most glad. . . .
' You know what my manner of life hath been. Oh, I lived in
" and loved darkness, and hated light ; I was a chief, the chief of
" sinners. This is true : I hated godliness, yet God had mercy
" on me." It was not long before the fervour which breaks out in
these lines attracted notice in the House. " The first time I ever
" took notice of Mr. Cromwell," afterwards wrote Philip Warwick,
member for Radnor, in an often-quoted passage, " was in the very
" beginning of the Parliament held in Nov. 1640, when I vainly
" thought myself a courtly young gentleman ; for we courtiers
1 Wood's Athen. III. 877—881 ; and Mr. David Laing's "Notices regarding
Clarendon, 936 (Life). Metrical Versions of the Psalms," in
2 Debrett's Baronetage. appendix to Baillie's Letters (III. 532
3 Wood's Athenae, III. 466; and et seq.).
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF COMMONS. 165
" valued ourselves much upon our good clothes. I came into the
" House one morning, well-clad, and i>erceived a gentleman speak-
" ing whom I knew not — very ordinarily apparelled ; for it was a
" plain cloth suit, which seemed to have been made by an ill
" country tailor ; his linen was plain and not very clean ; and I
" remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band, which
" was not much larger than his collar. His hat was without a hat-
" band. His stature was of a good size ; his sword stuck close to
" his side ; his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice sharp
" and untunable, and his eloquence full of fervour." Clarendon
also tells us how he found Cromwell "rude "and "tempestuous,"
beyond all bounds of courtesy, in one of his first encounters with
him in a Committee. All Cromwell's children had been born before
the Long Parliament, and he had lost his eldest son, Robert, about
eighteen months before.1
SIR HENRY VANE, JUNIOR, KNT. (Hull), <etat. 28. The life of
this young man, the eldest son of Secretary Sir Henry Vane, had
already been singular in the eyes of the world. Sent to Oxford
from Westminster School, he had astounded the authorities by
refusing, though but a boy, to take the required oaths. Perplexed
by the precocious ultra-Puritanism of his son, the elder Vane had
sent him abroad ; and in his twenty-third year he had emigrated to
America. He had been received there with much respect as the son
of a Privy Councillor; and in 1636 he had been elected Governor
of Massachusetts, the fourth in its series of Governors. During
his year of office the colony was much distracted by a controversy
occasioned by the public preaching of a Mrs. Hutchinson, the clergy
declaring the usurpation of the preaching function by a woman to be
monstrous and unscriptural, and also denouncing her doctrines as
Antinomian. The young Governor Vane, and a minority with him,
stood out for Mrs. Hutchinson and liberty ; and he maintained a dis-
cussion on the subject in printed letters with the ex-Governor, Win-
throp. In the following year the majority re-elected Winthrop to the
Governorship, and Vane returned to England, leaving, however, a
very favourable opinion of him among the colonists. He married,
sat in the Short Parliament for Hull, had been knighted by
Charles (June 1640), and had been appointed to the lucrative post
of joint-treasurer of the navy. It was probably hoped that ho
was now tamed, and would act as became his father's son. But
there was hardly a young head in England with such a quantity
of undeveloped theory in it. "He was a man," says Clarendon,
" of extraordinary parts, a pleasant wit, a great understanding,
" which pierced into and discerned the purposes of other men
" with wonderful sagacity, whilst he had himself vultum clausum,
" that no man could make a guess of what he intended." This
character was given after farther knowledge ; but Vane's peculiar
rr.. in well Mil. 1857), I. Hist, and Biog. Essays, I. 334, 335;
79—90, an. I 1. 51, 55 (no\ ixndon, Life, 936.
166 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
visage seems to have struck people from his first appearance in
the House. It came partly from his father and mother, " neither
of whom," says Clarendon, "were beautiful persons"?; but there
was something in it beyond the natural.1
HENRY MARTEN (co. Berks), cetat. 38. Belonging also to the
knot of the more extreme speculative spirits of the time, this
Henry Marten, son of Sir Henry Marten, Dean of the Court of
Arches, was distinguished from all of them by a certain moral
difference. Educated at Oxford, and a member of one of the Inns
of Court, he had been provided by his father with a very rich wife,
from whom he had separated. He had been living an easy,
and, as was said, a very lax life about town, or on his property in
the Vale of the White Horse in Berks, where his generosity made
him very popular. " He was a great lover of pretty girls," says the
gossip Aubrey, writing of him long afterwards, but while he was
still alive, " and as far from a Puritan as light from darkness."
But " he was," adds the same gossip, " a great and faithful lover of
his country." Aubrey goes on, "He was of an incomparable wit at
repartees " ; and Sir Eward Baynton was wont to say that " his
company was incomparable, but that he would be drunk too soon."
His speeches were never long, but "wondrous pertinent, poi-
gnant, and witty"; and he would often turn the whole House by some
happy jest. " He was wont to sleep much in the House, — at least
" dog-sleep. Alderman Atkins made a motion that such scan-
" dalous members as slept should be put out. H. M. starts up :
11 ' Mr. Speaker, a motion has been made to turn out the nodders : I
" desire the noddees may also be turned out.' " From which scraps of
gossip it may be seen that Marten was from the first more of what
we should now call a freethinker than a Puritan. In the end
they came to call him an Atheist, a Communist, and what not. It
was from Marten, at all events, that Hyde, who knew him well,
first heard anything like an expression of Republican opinions.
Meeting him in Westminster churchyard soon after the beginning
of the Parliament, and jesting with him on his connexion with the
Puritans, Hyde had heard him say, " I do not think one man wise
enough to govern us all." The speech took away Hyde's breath.2
BULSTRODE WHITLOCKE (Marlow), cetat. 35. Connected, as we
already know, with the Bulstrodes of Horton (Vol. I. p. 558),
Whitlocke had for some time been an eminent lawyer when he was
chosen to serve in the Long Parliament. Although he had been
educated in St. John's College, Oxford, when Laud was President of
the College, and retained some affectionate recollection of Laud on
that account, his dispositions were with the party of Reform. To
that party he remained faithful on the whole ; but his character
i Wood's Athen. III. 578—587 ; Cla- of American Biographies (1835).
rendon, 75 and 442 ; Sanford, 392— « Wood's Athen. III. 1237—1244,
395 ; and Life of Vane by Charles with Bliss's additions ; Aubrey's Lives ;
Wentworth Upham, in Sparks's series and Clarendon (Life), 937.
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF COMMONS. 167
was of a kind to be swayed pretty easily by personal considerations,
and by events as they turned up.1
SIR SAMUEL LUKE, KNT. (Bedford). It would be wrong not to
take note of this zealous Presbyterian member of the Long Parlia-
ment, if only on account of his being the supposed original of
Butler's Hudibras. I have seen in the State Paper Office a petition
from Sir Samuel Luke, in 1638, to Laud, for leave for himself and
family to attend divine service at any one of three parish churches
near his mansion of Woodend in Bedfordshire, instead of his own
parish church of Copthall, the distance of which was inconvenient,
especially in winter. Laud (July 2, 1638) granted the petition, on
condition that the family should still attend the communion at
Copthall Church. Butler seems about this time to have been
residing in Luke's household, as secretary or the like.
SIR EDWARD DEERINO, BART. (co. Kent). This gentleman,
afterwards a zealous royalist, entered the Parliament as a Puritan,
particularly vehement for Church Reform. He was called "the
silver trumpet of the House," having a fine voice, which he liked
to use. " A man of levity and vanity," Clarendon calls him, " easily
flattered by being commended."2
GEORGE, LORD DIGBY (co. Dorset), <Ktat. 28. This young noble-
man, who was to play a dashing part in the Parliament, ultimately
for the King, was the eldest son of the Earl of Bristol, and had
been in Madrid when his father was ambassador at the Spanish
Court. He had been educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where
he had been intimate with Peter Heylyn, then Fellow there. Of
"very extraordinary parts by nature and art," of "graceful and
beautiful person," of " great eloquence and becomingness in his dis-
course," and " equal to a very good part in the greatest affair, but
the unfittest man alive to conduct it, having an ambition and vanity
superior to all! his other parts," is Clarendon's character of him
from his own knowledge. A portrait of him by Vandyke repre-
sents him as very handsome, with rich, full face, and long curled
fair hair.8
SIR JOHN COLEPEPPER (co. Kent). In the course of events
this gentleman, like his colleague Deering, was to go over to the
King's side, but with a weight of character and influence far greater
than Deering's. Clarendon's character of him is that he was "a
" good speaker, being a man of an universal understanding, a quick
" comprehension, a wonderful memory, who commonly spoke at the
" end of a debate, when he could recollect all that had been said of
" weight on all sides with great exactness, and express his own sense
" with much clearness, and such an application to the House that
" no man more gathered a general concurrence to his opinion than
" he ; which was the more notable because his person and manner of
» Wood'* Athcn. III. 1042. » Wood's Athon. III. 1100; Collin*
2 Korster's " Arrontof tho Five Mom- by Brydgos, V. 865 rf «*/. ; und Clar.
bore," 228 ct **/. ; and Clar. 96. IT
168 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" speaking were ungracious enough." In another place Clarendon
adds such particulars as these,' — that " he was of a rough nature, a
hot head, and of great courage," had been in military service abroad
and had fought many duels, had long been known as an active
man of business among the Kentish gentry, and had now entered
Parliament with a determination to make himself felt. He had,
however, "a fancy so perpetually working" that, though he might
agree to a project to-day, he would have to-morrow a new budget of
doubts about it, — which, Clarendon thinks, was his chief fault.1
EDWARD HYDE (Saltash, Cornwall), cetat. 32. Hyde's antecedents
are known to us as far as to the year 1632 (Vol. I. pp. 531 — 533).
Since then he had been diligent in his profession as a lawyer, and
had acquired as much practice as he cared for, so as, with a com-
petent estate of his own to boot, to be leading " a very pleasant and
plentiful life." But " he had ambition enough," he says, " to keep
him from being satisfied with his own condition " ; and to this am-
bition, together with his fastidious and intellectual tastes, he owed,
he hints, his moral salvation. " There never was an age," he says,
" in which, in so short a time, so many young gentlemen who had
" not experience in the world, or some good tutelar angel to protect
" them, were insensibly and suddenly overwhelmed in that sea of
" wine and women, and quarrels and gaming, which almost over-
" spread the whole kingdom." Happily escaping a fate to which
a certain luxuriousness of disposition might have exposed him, and
retaining his many friends among the lawyers and wits, and above
all his affectionate intimacy with Lord Falkland and the rest of the
thoughtful " Latitudinarian " group, he had of late been extending
his acquaintance in the direction of the Court. Among the noble-
men, he knew Essex, Pembroke, Hertford, Manchester, Holland,
Dorset, Mandeville, and Conway ; and circumstances had brought
him into somewhat confidential communication with Laud. He
fancied that Laud did a great many unpopular things from having no
friend about him candid enough to explain matters to him and to tell
him his faults of manner and temper, and he seems to have thought
that, if he himself were much with Laud, there was a fund of reason-
ableness in the old man that might be managed for good. Still, on
the whole, Hyde took his place in the Parliament, as in its pre-
decessor, decidedly as a reformer ; and, as a lawyer, he had reform-
hobbies of his own. He was a first-rate speaker ; " if not a little
too redundant," says Sir Philip Warwick.2
SIR Lucius CAREY, VISCOUNT FALKLAND (Newport, Isle of
Wight), cetat. 30. Always close to Hyde in the House, in a place
near the Speaker which was kept for them by a tacit understanding,
sat his dear friend Falkland, whom he admired and loved more than
any other man in the House. (The Falkland Peerage, being Scottish,
did not exclude Falkland from the Commons.) Nor was it long
i Clarendon, 136 (History), and 940 2 Clarendon, 932 et seq. (Life) ; and
(Life) ; Warwick's Memoir, 195-6. Warwick, 196.
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF COMMONS. 169
before those qualities of head and heart which Hyde, Chillingworth,
Hales and others had for years been admiring in the young noble-
man in private arrested the attention of the House, and made
him, though perhaps the most diminutive and insignificant-looking
person in it, one of its leading minds. In politics he was, on the
whole, in advance of Hyde. "He had not the Court in great
' reverence, and had a presaging spirit that the King would fall
1 into great misfortune " ; and, though " he had a better opinion
1 of the Church of England and the religion of it than of any
' other church and religion, and had extraordinary kindness for
' very many churchmen," yet " he had in his own judgment such
' a latitude of opinion that he did not believe any part of the order
* or government of it to be so essentially necessary to religion but
1 that it might be parted with." Here Hyde was at variance with
him ; but Falkland's characteristic wish that it could be brought
about that all necessary reforms should come from the Crown itself
kept him and Hyde together to the end.1
ARTHUR CAPEL (Hertfordshire), tetat. 40. This gentleman took
his place in the Commons as a reformer, and was actually the first
to stand up there and complain of the grievances of the country.
Very soon, however, his Royalist tendencies were to declare them-
selves ; and he was but eight months in the Commons when (Aug.
6, 1641) he was transferred to the Lords as Baron Capel of Hadhani,
co. Herts. It is, consequently, as the Royalist Lord Capel, brave
to the death, that he is now remembered. " He had always," says
Clarendon, " lived in a state of great plenty and general estimation,
" having a very noble fortune of his own by descent, and a fair
" addition to it by his marriage with an excellent wife, a lady of
" very worthy extraction, of great virtue and beauty, by whom he
" had a numerous issue of both sexes, in which he took great joy
" and comfort, so that no man was more happy in all his domestic
" affairs." A picture of him by Jansen, still extant, represents him
with his family about him.2
EDMUND WALLER (St Ives, Cornwall), <etat. 35. Since we parted
with him last in 1632 (Vol. I. pp. 505, 506) this well-known poet
had been living the life of a very wealthy young widower, chiefly on
his estates in Bucks, occasionally turning out a copy of graceful
verses, addressed to the King, the Queen, or some courtier or lady,
but, on the whole, preserving his independence. Unsuccessful in his
suit of Lady Dorothy Sidney, the " Saccharissa " of his poems, he had
married, for his second wife, a lady of humbler rank. He had re-
entered public life in the Short Parliament with such dispositions
as might be expected in one who was a kinsman of Hampden and
( 'K.I 1 1 well, and yet of cool intellectual tastes and a friend of Hyde
ami Falkland. " He was a very pleasant discourser," says Clarendon,
' < larctMlon, 939—40, and 966 (Life); worth, IV. 29 ; Clar. Hist. 703 ; Picture
and sec Y,,l. I. ,,,,. 538-540. No. 794 in National Portrait Exhibition
;-dalo'» Baronage, II. 466 ; Hush- ,,f 1866.
170 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" in earnest and in jest, and therefore very grateful to all kind of
" company." In the House he at once took a prominent part.
" Having a graceful way of speaking, and by thinking much upon
" several arguments (which his temper and complexion, that had
" much of melancholic, inclined him to), he often seemed to speak
" upon the sudden when the occasion had only admitted the oppor-
" tunity of saying what he had thoroughly considered, — which yet
" was rather of delight than weight." The terrible moral defects
which, according to Clarendon, mingled with all his good qualities,
— to wit, "a narrowness in his nature to the lowest degree," and his
" abjectness and want of courage to support him in any virtuous
" undertaking", — were subsequent discoveries.1
SIR WILLIAM WALLER, KNT. (Andover), cetat. 43. Possibly a
relative of the poet, and of a good family in Kent, this Waller had
been educated at Oxford, had served in the earlier stages of the great
German war, had been knighted by James in 1622, and, having
married twice since that time, had been living as a country-gentle-
man of decidedly Presbyterian opinions. Entering Parliament as
" an active person against prerogative and everything that looked
" that way," he was to be better known ere long in a military
capacity. That he was a man of talent and of serious and thought-
ful mind is proved, not only by his subsequent career, but by medi-
tative writings of his later years which may still be read, and which
Coleridge admired. He was a very little man, fair and rather
florid, with brown hair, tending to grey.2
SIR KALPH HOPTON, K.B. (Wells). He was the son of a
Somersetshire squire, and, after having been for some time at
Oxford, had gone abroad in his youth to serve in the first stage of
the great German war. He had been Sir William Waller's com-
panion in arms there. He was present at the Battle of Prague
(Nov. 8, 1620), and had helped gallantly in the escape of Queen
Elizabeth of Bohemia (daughter of James I. of England) after that
crushing 'defeat of her and her husband's cause. Keturning to
England, he had been made K.B. at the coronation of Charles I.,
and had served in several of Charles's Parliaments, so that, when
he appeared in the Long Parliament as member for Wells, it was
with some acquired political experience. He was decidedly for
destroying the system of " Thorough " and liberalizing the Govern-
ment ; and it was not till mere discussion had turned into civil war
that his conscience led him on the whole to declare for the King.
Then his military talents came into request, and he was to prove
perhaps the very ablest English officer the King had. " A man
" superior to any temptation," Clarendon calls him ; "of good
" understanding, a clear courage, an industry not to be tired, and a
" generosity not to be exhausted "; and the testimony is uniform to
i Waller's Life in Johnson's "Lives 928 (Life).
of the Poets" (where there is a mistake 2 Wood's Athen. III. 814; Warwick's
as to Waller's burgh) ; Clarendon, 927, Memoir, 254 ; and Clarendon, 401.
1640-41.J THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF COMMONS. 171
the same effect. A portrait I have seen represents him in a ruff,
with short fair hair, and a small fair beard.1
FERDINANDO, LORD FAIRFAX (co. York), a*at. 56. The Fairfaxes
were an ancient and important family in Yorkshire. Sir Thomas
Fairfax of Denton in that county, a soldier and diplomatist in his
earlier years, but latterly leading the life of an active country-
gentleman, had been created Baron Fairfax of Cameron in the
Scottish peerage in 1627. Ferdinando, his son, had been knighted
by James in 1607, when he was twenty-three years of age, had in
the same year married Lady Mary, daughter of Lord Sheffield,
President of the North, and had since then lived also chiefly in his
native county. To him and his wife there had been born a large
family, — their eldest son being Thomas Fairfax (born 1612), after-
wards the celebrated Commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary
Army. Edward Fairfax, the poet and translator of Tasso, was the
brother of the old peer, and, living much in Yorkshire till his
death in 1632, had had some share in the education both of his
nephew, Sir Ferdinando, and of his grand-nephew, the future
general. In the year of the poet's death, the future general, though
only twenty years of age, was already a conspicuous member of
the family. After four years at Cambridge he had gone abroad
for military service in the Netherlands under Lord Vere, and he
had just returned with some reputation so acquired, and with the
name among his relatives of "fiery young Tom." In 1637 he had
married Anne, daughter of his late commander, Lord Vere, and
taken up his home with her in Yorkshire, beside his grandfather, the
old peer, and his father, Sir Ferdinando. All the three Fairfaxes,
therefore, were in Yorkshire at the time of Charles's first expedition
against the Scots (1639); and two of them, as we have seen, had
been active in the King's service in that expedition, — Sir Ferdi-
nando as colonel of a Yorkshire foot-regiment, and Thomas as a
commander of horse. Thomas's horse-troop was known as "The
Yorkshire Redcaps," and his service with them was so marked that
Charles, before returning from the bootless expedition, knighted
him. It was not till May 1640 that the old peer died, and Sir
Ferdinando became Lord Fairfax. He, and his son, Sir Thomas,
took some i>art again for Charles in the second Scottish campaign
in that year, though by that time Lord Fairfax's political reluctance
had begun to appear. When he entered the Commons House in
the Long Parliament (from which his peerage, being Scottish, did
not exclude him), it was understood that he would belong to the
I>arty of Reform. He had already, as Sir Ferdinando, been in one
of Charles's early Parliaments, and also in the Short Parliament of
April 1640. He is described as "a man of good average ability,
" with great powers of application, steadiness of aim, and unswerv-
" ing honesty of purpose " ; and his portrait presents him as hand-
some, light-haired, and good-humoured. He is less memorable on
» Dugdale's Baronage, II. 469 ; Markham's Fairfax, 262 ; Clar. 482.
172 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
his own account, however, than as the father of his son, Sir Thomas,
who was not then in Parliament, but in Yorkshire (a young husband
of twenty -seven, with one or two children), waiting the call of
events.1
SIR SIMONDS D'EwES, KNT. (Sudbury), cetat. 38. Since we saw
D'Ewes as a student at Cambridge (Vol. I. pp. 261—263), he had
been called to the Bar of the Middle Temple (1623), had become
known as a zealous antiquarian, had married, been knighted by
Charles, and, having succeeded his father in the property of Stow
Hall, Suffolk, had been living as a well-to-do country knight. He
had been high sheriff of Suffolk in 1639, and was known to his
neighbours as a pious gentleman of Puritan views. Having com-
pleted, as early as 1632, his "Journals of the Parliaments of
Elizabeth " (not published till half a century afterwards), he was
anxious to be chosen for the Long Parliament. Having succeeded
in obtaining a seat just after the first meeting of the Parliament,
he entered it with some real reputation as an authority in questions
of Parliamentary precedent and privilege ; which reputation his
vanity disposed him to overtax, till the House began to regard him
as a bore. But his indefatigable habit of note-taking enabled him
to do posterity a service. On the very first day of his taking his
seat he produced his note-book and began to jot down details of
the incidents and speeches. Though a little inconvenienced by
his being short-sighted, and by a certain jealousy of the House
about reporting its proceedings at all, he persevered in the
practice steadily, till, what with his notes in the House, and what
with expansions of them by himself or his amanuensis in his
lodgings (first in Millbank Lane and then in Goat's Alley), the
result was those folio volumes of MSS., now in the British Museum,
in which inquirers into the history of that period find so much
interesting material in such a confused state and in such dread-
fully cramp handwriting. D'Ewes, however, was not the only
note-taker among the members. SIR RALPH VERNEY (Aylesbury),
FRAMLINGHAM GAWDY (Thetford), and one or two others, also took
notes.2
To the foregoing list of members individually may be added the
following names, some of them known to us already, and others
important enough to be known, but for which a collective reference
will suffice here : — -I. Country Gentlemen. In this category may be
mentioned — SIDNEY GODOLPHIN (Helston, Cornwall), the friend of
Hyde and Falkland; SIR DUDLEY NORTH (co. Cambridge), son
and heir of Dudley, 3rd Lord North; SIR JOHN STRANGEWAYS
and SIR WALTER EARLE (colleagues for Weymouth) ; SIR JOHN
HOTHAM (Beverley), and his son JOHN HOTHAM (Scarborough) ;
1 Life of the Great Lord Fairfax, by a very interesting account of D'Ewes
Clements K. Markham, F.S.A. (1870), in connexion with the Long Parliament
pp. 1 — 41. was given by the late Mr. John Bruce);
2 English Biography, Vol. V. ; and Harl. MSS. 162, 163, et seq.
Edinburgh Revieiv for July 1846 (where
1640-41.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT: HOUSE OF COMMONS. 173
SIR JOHN WRAY (Lincolnshire) ; SIR JOHN EVELYN (Ludgerehall,
Wilts), and his namesake SIR JOHN EVELYN (Bletchingley, Sur-
rey) ; SIR ROBERT PYE (Woodstock, with Speaker Lenthall for his
f ellow- member) ; SIR THOMAS BARRINGTON (Colchester), a cousin
of Cromwell; Su: WILLIAM MASHAM (co. Essex), also Cromwell's
kinsman; Su: HIM:V MII.I»MAY and SIR JOHN CLOTWORTHY (col-
leagues for Maiden) ; WILLIAM PIEREPOINT (Great Wenlock),
second son of the Earl of Kingston ; SIR ROBERT HARLEY (co.
Hereford) ; LORD PHILIP LISLE (Yarmouth, Isle of Wight), eldest
son of the Earl of Leicester ; SIR HENRY LUDLOW (co. Wilts), the
father of Edmund Ludlow ; and SIR JOHN DRYDEN (co. North-
ampton), the uncle of the poet Dryden, who was then a boy of nine
years of age. II. Eminent Lawyers. In this category, besides
those already mentioned, may be noted these : JOHN MAYNARD
(Totness) ; JOHN GLYNN (Westminster), Recorder of London ;
JOHN GLANVILLE (Bristol) ; GEOFFREY PALMER (Stamford) ; JOHN
WYLDE (Worcestershire) ; EDWARD BAGSHAW (South wark) ; ROBERT
HOLBORN (Michell, Cornwall) ; and HARBOTTLE GRIMSTONE (Col-
chester). III. Army-men. Some of the country -gentlemen
mentioned had had military training ; but Army-men in a more
especial sense were these : HENRY WILMOT (Tamworth), who had
been Commissary -general in the second army against the Scots;
HENRY PERCY (co. Northumberland), brother of the Earl of
Northumberland ; HENRY JERMYN (Bury St. Edmunds), master of
horse to the Queen ; COLONEL GEORGE GORING (Portsmouth), son of
Lord Goring ; COLONEL ASHBURNHAM (Ludgershall, Wilts) ; and
CAPTAIN POLLARD (Beeralston). IV. Citizen-merchants. Of this
class were ISAAC PENNINGTON, THOMAS SOAME, JOHN VENN, and
SAMUEL VASSAL, aldermen of the City of London and members
for the City, and perhaps one or two aldermen from other towns,
I'KNNINGTON was certainly the most conspicuous man of the class,
highly popular with the citizens of London, and at the same time
deep in all the counsels of the Puritan leaders in Parliament.1
NINE MONTHS OF GENERAL PARLIAMENTARY ACTION.
Imagine the two Houses, in November 1640, settled for
their work. Imagine the Lords in their House, with Lord
Keeper Finch on the woolsack (though not to occupy it long),
and with Thomas Willys, the Clerk of the Crown, and John
1 Convinced as I am that such a or disnuisition, I have taken groat paint*
counting of tho eminent heads of any with tno list. Yet I may not have oeen
time or moment as that which I have able to avoid errors. — Original por-
itt. mptcd for the Long Parliament is traits of most of tho celebrities of tho
worth, for genuine historical purjio&ea, Long Parliament wore in tho National
many scores of {ages of more narrative Portrait Exhibition of 1866.
174 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Browne, the Clerk of the Parliament, in constant attendance.
Imagine the Commons in St. Stephen's Chapel, at one end
of which, under the great window, is the chair on which
Speaker Lenthall sits, with Henry Elsyng, Clerk of the
Commons, and John Eushworth, the assistant-clerk, at a table
immediately in front of him, while the great body of the
members sit in rows at the sides, or some of them at the
ends under the galleries, or some even in the galleries them-
selves. Gradually the members fix upon places according to
their tastes. Pym sat on the Speaker's left, but at some
distance from him ; and on the same side, but nearer the
Speaker, sat the younger Vane, St. John, Holies, D'Ewes,
Henry Marten, and Edmund Waller. On the other side sat
the elder Vane, Hyde, and Falkland (these three always close
together near the Speaker), also Eudyard, Strode, Isaac
Pennington, and Cromwell. Selden usually sat under the
gallery at the entrance ; Haselrig and Holborn usually in the
gallery.1 Business began every morning with prayers at
eight o'clock ; and for a time it was tried to end by about
one o'clock. This, however, was found impossible, and after-
noon sittings became habitual, extending often till dusk.
Such afternoon sittings, however, were rarely attended by the
younger and idler members ; who would be off to the parks
or to bowls or tennis after their early dinner. A system of
fines was tried, to compel afternoon-attendance and punctuality
at morning prayers. It had to be given up, but seems from
time to time to have been renewed.
In the first nine months of the sittings, or between Nov. 3,
1640, and August 1641, the two Houses, partly by the
agency of numerous Committees on different subjects, got
through a vast quantity of work. A minute student, de-
sirous of ascertaining every particular of their discussions
or determinations during those nine months, might spend
nine months of his own life in mere reading for the pur-
pose. In the following summary I shall but mass together,
1 D'Ewes is the authority for such Review (by the late Mr. John Bruce),
particulars ; and some of them are from July 1846.
an article on D'Ewes in the Edinburgh
1640-41.] RELEASE AND COMPENSATION OF VICTIMS. 175
under five heads, what it seems desirable to know of the
nature and results of their action in various general depart-
ments, before following them into one department of para-
mount interest, where our inquiries must be more express
and laborious: —
I. RELEASE AND COMPENSATION OF VICTIMS. — Meeting as
they did avowedly to break the neck of "Thorough," the
Parliament, led by the Commons, addressed themselves, first
of all, to the business of liberating and solacing such victims
of the late tyranny as were still in durance. Among the
many cases of immediate relief to individuals one dwells,
with chief interest still, as all England did at the time,
on some five or six. There were Prynne, Burton, and
Bastwick, who had been lying in their separate prisons in the
Channel Islands and the Scilly Islands since their public
torture and mutilation in 1637; there was young John
Lilburne, who had been whipped through the streets in 1638
for distributing Prynne's writings, and had been in prison
since then ; there was the poor Scot, Dr. Alexander Leighton,
father of the future Archbishop Leighton, who had been in
prison since his horrible mutilation for an Anti-Prelatic pam-
phlet so long ago as 1630. On the 7th of November, the
first real day of business in the Commons, most of these cases
came up. Lilburne's petition was presented by Cromwell ;
and it was on this occasion that Sir Philip Warwick first
saw Cromwell, and took note of his untidy appearance, his
swollen, reddish face, and his harsh and fervid manner. That
very day Lilburne and Leighton were at large ; and within
little more than a month Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick were
back from their more distant prisons amid vast cheering of
the citizens, who poured out in huge crowds, on horse, in
coaches, and on foot, all with rosemary branches, to meet
them. Burton and Bastwick were restored to their wives,
and Prynne, who had no wife, to his chambers in Lincoln's
Inn In due time came compensations of 6,000/., 6,000/.,
and like sums, with Burton's restoration to his church in
Friday Street, and Prynne's to his barristership. Something
was also done for the stout London citizen and merchant
176 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Richard Chambers, and for other victims of the Star-
chamber.1
II. PUNISHMENT OF DELINQUENTS. — Of longer duration
and more intricate difficulty were proceedings, as natural and
necessary, for the trial and punishment of the chief agents
of " Thorough." Under a constitutional government, freely
working by changes of ministry and the like, the practice of
the impeachment arid punishment of eminent political delin-
quents on retrospective charges has come to seem meaningless
or ridiculous. The politicians who were in go out, and the
politicians who were out come in; and all shake hands and
begin again. But, in a nation where there has been " a
tyranny," where certain men have held and used power
for a long period against the will and struggles of the com-
munity, then, when the tables have been turned, these men
have to expect a severe reckoning. How should it be other-
wise ? So long as Prcemium and Pcena rule the world,- it seems
impossible that the trial and punishment by a community of
those whom it has marked in such circumstances as eminent
political delinquents can be anything else than a necessity.
At all events, in England two centuries and a half ago
this principle was in operation. When the Long Parliament
met, it was as impossible for it to avoid bringing Stafford,
Laud, Cottington, Windebank, and a few others, to account,
as it would be now to allow alleged criminals of another
order to escape the law.
Bloodthirstiness was not a characteristic of the Parlia-
ment. There was but one of Charles's confidential junto
of ministers respecting whom Pym and the other leaders
had made up their minds that nothing short of his death
would satisfy the national need. This was Stafford. Him
they struck first. Charles's selfishness or his infatuation
had given them the opportunity. Stafford, foreseeing what
i Bush worth, IV. 20 and 228-9 ; in the Isle of Stilly " ; the other from
May's Hist, of Long Parl. (1812), "Sara Burton, wife of Henry Burton,
54, 55 ; Neal (edit. 1794), II. 366— now close prisoner in the Island of
368; and documents in S. P. 0. Guernsey." Mrs. Bastwick says she
Among these documents are two peti- had never been allowed to see her hus-
tions, dated Nov. 7, 1640: one from band, had "many small children de-
" Susanna Bastwick, wife of John Bast- pending on her," and had been in great
wick, Doctor of Physic, close prisoner straits and misery.
1640-41.] 1TMSHMENT OF DELINQUENTS. 177
must happen, had begged, had implored, that he might be
permitted to return to Ireland, or to remain with the wrecks
of the English army in Yorkshire, so as to be absent from
the Parliament. But, the King having replied that Strafford's
presence was necessary, and having given his royal word that
" not a hair of his head should be touched," the brave man
had dared the worst On the 9th of November he was in
London. On the llth, coming straight from the King, he
entered the House of Lords " with a proud, glooming counte-
nance." He was " making towards his place at the board-end "
when he found Pym and other deputies from the Commons
already there, in the act of impeaching him and demanding
his arrest. Driven back to the door by outcries, he was re-
admitted, only to be called to his knees and delivered to the
custody of the Black Rod. This custody was exchanged on the
25th of November for the sterner one of the Tower.1 From
the moment of his arrest it may be said that the reign of
" Thorough " was definitely at an end, the King cowed and
crippled, and the Parliament supreme in England for all
farther action whatsoever. Had Strafford remained at large,
a dissolution of the Parliament, with some new high-handed
attempt by the King, might have come any day, and all might
have been lost or thrown confusedly back. Hence the pro-
found sagacity, as well as the boldness, of the policy of
making his impeachment for treason almost the first act of
the Commons. The proposal was Pym's. It was the master-
stroke by which he inaugurated and assumed his Parlia-
mentary leadership.
Strafford having been disposed of, the proceedings against
his chief fellow -culprits were more leisurely. Secretary
Windebank, who had been in trepidation since the opening
of the Parliament, took flight in the night of the 1st of De-
cember, to avoid certain arrest in the House the next day ;
and, after skulking about the Kentish coast for a day or two,
he escaped to France, by crossing the Channel on a dark-
foggy night, with his nephew and secretary, Reade, in a small
' Kushworth, IV. 42, 43; May, 69, 60 ; Baillio, I. 272.
VOL. II N
178 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
boat.1 Lord Keeper Finch, against whom charges of treason
were in preparation, escaped or was let escape (Dec. 22) into
Holland. The Marquis of Hamilton and Lord Cottington,
against both of whom proceedings had at first been threatened,
were also allowed to withdraw themselves on their good
behaviour. With Strafford in the Tower, and Hamilton
forgiven, there remained of the so-called Triumvirs only Laud.
The resolution how to deal with him seems to have been
formed gradually. Attacked in the Commons on the 10th of
December by Sir Edward Deering, again more formally at-
tacked on the 18th by Denzil Holies, and complained against
from time to time by the Scottish Commissioners before
the Lords, it was not till the 1st of March 1640-41, that
he was removed from the house of Mr. Maxwell, the Usher
of the Lords, where he had for some time been in custody,
to his closer prison in the Tower. The rabble hooted him
through Cheapside and as far as the Tower-gates. By that
time the Commons had marked or struck down most of the
other prime delinquents. Six or seven of the Judges, against
whom there were charges of misconduct, had been formally
accused and held to bail. Wren, Bishop of Ely, and Pierce,
Bishop of Bath and Wells, with two or three other church-
men who had been especially rigorous in prosecuting the
Puritans, had also been accused and threatened.
Much of all this was merely in terrorem. Even in sending
Laud to the Tower there was no settled purpose against the
old man's life. It was enough that he and a few others, who
might have been able to organize an opposition to the new
course of affairs, should be put effectually hors de combat.
Only in the case of Strafford was there a determination for
more.
The trial of Strafford was for several months the all-
engrossing subject of public interest. Many pages would be
required for all the particulars of that superlative story.
1 House of Commons order in S. P. 0. flight and its difficulties. There are
of date Dec. 1, for examination of subsequent letters from France, from
Windebank on the morrow ; and Letter Reade and Windebank himself, telling
of Reade, of date "Calais T^ Dec. the sad straits to which they were put
1640," in the S. P. 0., describing the in their exile, and asking remittances.
1640-41.] STRAFFORD'S TRIAL. 179
Three whole kingdoms, as the historian May says, were the
accusers. It was the long labour of a committee of twelve
of the Commons, headed by Pyin, and including Hampden,
Selden, and Whitlocke, to prepare the first indictment.
Scotland, through her commissioners, and Ireland, through
accusers who came over for the purpose, contributed infor-
mation which swelled the indictment to a total of eight-and-
twenty articles. On Monday, the 22nd of March 1640-41,
the trial began, and it was continued for fourteen days
without interruption. As one walks now in the noble Hall
of Westminster, and thinks of the many great scenes of
English History which those massive walls, that vast pave-
ment, and that high arched roof have witnessed, one remem-
bers most of all that here the Earl of Strafford was tried.
One can imagine still the Hall as it was fitted up for that
occasion. The farther end of it was converted into a great
stage, with seats of green frieze, whereon sat the Peers as
Straffbrd's judges, in their robes of crimson and ermine,
with Arundel, as High Steward, on the woolsack. Behind
this stage were little trellised rooms for the King, the Queen,
and the Court ladies, in one of which the King was often
seen anxiously taking notes. In the middle of the Hall,
in a space at the end of the stage, was the prisoner himself,
dressed in black, in the custody of the Keeper of the Tower,
with his counsel and secretaries about him ; and in the same
space stood the witnesses as they were summoned, and the
committee of the Commons and others managing the prose-
cution. The rest of the Hall, from the stage to the door,
was nearly filled with the Commons, with their heads un-
covered, seated on rows of benches rising lengthwise from the
floor upwards to the walls. To the Scottish and Irish com-
missioners and other privileged persons were assigned the*
two highest benches, railed off from the Commons; and
there was a miscellaneous audience in galleries, or other
spare places, including many ladies. The proceedings began
every morning at eight o'clock, by which time Strafford had
been brought from the Tower in a barge ; but such was the
crush that it was necessary for all but the highly privileged
180 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
to be in their places by five o'clock. After that hour no
egress was possible till between two and four in the afternoon,
when the day's business usually closed. " It was daily/'
says Baillie, who was present, " the most glorious assembly
" the Isle could afford ; yet the gravity not such as I
" expected. Oft great clamour without about the doors ; in
" the intervals, while Strafford was making ready for answers,
" the Lords got always to their feet, walked and clattered, —
" the Lower House men too loud clattering; after ten
" hours much public eating, not only of confections, but of
" flesh and bread, — bottles of beer and wine going thick from
" mouth to mouth without cups ; and all this in the King's
" eye." Of the ladies present, most of whom, " moved by
pity proper to their sex," took Strafford's side, not a few,
says May, " had pen, ink, and paper in their hands, noting
" the passages, and discoursing upon the grounds of law and
" state." And so, for fourteen full days, the trial went on.
Among the host of witnesses, English, Scottish, and Irish,
that had been examined, were the Marquis of Hamilton,
Bishop Juxon, the Earls of Northumberland, Holland, and
Berkshire, Lord Conway, the elder Vane, and other Privy
Councillors, all released on the occasion by the King from
their oath of secrecy. At length, all the twenty-eight articles
of the impeachment having been gone through, there remained
only the final speeches for the defence and the prosecution.
At this point (April 8) there occurred a break in the pro-
ceedings, favourable to Strafford. Granted that all the alleged
acts of the indictment were proved, argued Strafford and his
counsel, was it possible to bring any of them, or all together,
within the very precise definition of treason by the Statute
of Treason passed in the reign of Edward III. ? Was any
such generality as " subverting or endeavouring to subvert
the fundamental laws of the kingdom " recognised among the
treasons of that statute, or was the life of a subject to be
sacrificed to a mere theory of " constructive treason," by
which a series of acts not treasonous individually might be
regarded as treason in their sum ? To help the Commons
through this difficulty there was revealed to them at the last
1640-41.1 STRAFFORD'S TRIAL. 181
moment, by the younger Sir Henry Vane, a startling piece of
new evidence which he had had in his possession for some
time. This was a memorandum in his father's handwriting,
accidentally found by him among his father's papers, and
purporting to be a " copy of notes taken at a junto of the
Privy Council for Scots affairs about the 5th of May last."
In a conversation in which the King, Strafford, Laud, and
Cottington were the speakers, Strafford, according to this
memorandum, had then given the King the following advice
with reference to the dissolution of the Short Parliament then
resolved on: "Your Majesty having tried the affection of
" your people, you are absolved and loose from all rule of
" government, and to do what power will admit. Your
" Majesty, having tried all ways and being refused, shall be
" acquitted before God and man ; and you have an army in
" Ireland that you may employ to reduce this kingdom to
" obedience, for I am confident the Scots cannot hold out
" five months." The appearance of this new piece of evi-
dence, and the peculiar circumstances of it, placing the two
Vanes in such a strange relation to one another, caused pro-
found sensation. Glynn, on the part of the prosecution,
applied for a re-opening of the evidence on the 23rd article
of the impeachment, with a view to fortify it with the new
proof. To this there was demur on the part of Strafford's
counsel, unless they should have liberty to re-open the case,
on their side, not only on that article, but on any or all. The
Lords favouring the view of Strafford's counsel, there was an
extraordinary excitement among the Commons. They rose
(April 10) in a fury on both sides of the Hall, putting on
their hats and calling out "Withdraw," "Withdraw." One
or two adjournments, with separate meetings of the two
Houses, and conferences between them, followed. The result
was that the trial was permitted to exhaust itself, after the mere
production of Vane's notes in Court, but without fresh exami-
nation of witnesses, on the 13th of April; on which day
Strafford made his last speech in defence, and Glynn and Pym
concluded in reply. For by this time it had been resolved
not to trust to the trial in that form, but to resort to another
182 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
mode of procedure, of which there had been the option from
the first.
From the first the Commons had had the choice of two
methods of bringing such a state-criminal to justice. There
was the ordinary method by Impeachment, in which they
should be the accusers and the Peers the judges ; and there
was the less ordinary method of procedure by Bill of Attain-
der, by which the Commons might themselves judge and
condemn Strafford as a public enemy, and then send up the
Bill to be passed or rejected by the Lords and the Crown, like
any other Bill. This second method, constitutional authorities
now assert, would have been the more proper in a case like
Stafford's ; and the other method had been preferred chiefly
because it did not require the King's co-operation, as a Bill
of Attainder would. But, the procedure by Impeachment
having run aground, the Commons now resorted to the
alternative method in order to make sure. A Bill of Attain-
der was brought in on the 10th of April, the very day when
the Commons had begun to fear a frustration of the trial.
1 1 took a whole month to reach the conclusion by this new
route. Bead a second time on the 14th of April, the Bill was
carried in the Commons on the 21st by 204 votes against 59.
This minority of fifty-nine consisted by no means of men who
desired to see Strafford escape punishment, but only of men
who could nob make up their minds to the extreme vote for
his death. In the passage of the Bill through the Upper
House it naturally encountered more of this anxiety to be
merciful. Nay, the King himself interposed. Paying a visit
to the Lords on the 1st of May, he made an appeal to them
not to send the Bill up to him precisely as it stood. " In my
" conscience," he said, " I cannot condemn him of high treason ;
" yet I cannot say I can clear him of misdemeanour ; therefore
" I hope that you may find a way to satisfy justice and your
" own fears, and not to press upon my conscience. My lords,
" I hope you know what a tender thing conscience is. ...
" I must confess, for matter of Misdemeanour, I am so clear
" in that, that, though I will not chalk out the way, yet let
" me tell you I do think my Lord Strafford is not fit hereafter
1640-41.] STRAFFORD'S DOOM. 183
" either to serve me or the Commonwealth in any place of
" trust, no not so much as that of a constable." What might
have been the result of this appeal, acting on the hesitating
dispositions of the Lords, needs not now be inquired. At the
very moment when it was made, there was a discovery whicli
frustrated it It was the discovery of an " Army-Plot," — in
other words, of a plot in which the little group of Army-men
in the Commons, whom we have named together in our account
of the composition of the Parliament, had been engaged along
with the poets Suckling and Davenant, and one or two more,
and not without the knowledge of the Queen. The aim of the
plot was to bring up part of the English army from Yorkshire
to overawe the Parliament, or at all events to make an attempt
upon the Tower for Strafford's release. The plot having been
discovered, and those concerned in it having fled, the conse-
quent indignation of the two Houses, backed by a wild
tumult in London, and cries of "Justice, Justice" from
excited mobs in the streets, was fatal to Strafford. Knowing
this, and that an attempt to bribe the Lieutenant of the
Tower had failed, he himself wrote, on the 4th of May, to
the King, expressing resignation to his fate, and only recom-
mending his four young children to his Majesty's protection.
On the 8th the Bill of Attainder passed the Lords in a thin
House. All then depended on the King.
It is not for a historian to be very ready with opinions as
to what a king, or any other person, might, could, or should
have done on this or that occasion. But here there can be
no doubt. All the sophistication in the world cannot make
a doubt. If ever there may be a moment in a man's life when,
with all the clamour of a nation urging to an act, all personal
and State reasons persuading to it as expedient, and all the
pressure of circumstances impelling to it as inevitable, still
even they who would approve of the act in itself must declare
that for that man to do it were dastardly, such a moment had
come for Charles. To dare all, to see London and England in
uproar, to lose throne, life, and everything, rather than assent
to the death of his minister, was Charles's plain duty. Strafford
had been his ablest minister by far, had laboured for him with
184 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
heart and head, had made the supremacy of the Crown the
cause of his life ; not an act he had done, one may say, but
was with Charles's consent, or his implied command and
approbation ; and it was in trust in all this, and in the royal
promise that " not a hair of his head should be touched,"
that Strafford, against his own better judgment, had run the
risk of coming to London. If the words " honour " and
" fidelity " have any meaning, there was but one right course
for the King. How did he behave ? On Sunday the 9th of
May he had a consultation with Juxon, Usher, and Williams,
as spiritual advisers, and with his Privy Councillors generally,
respecting his scruples of conscience. Juxon and Usher gave
him the manly advice that, if his conscience did not consent
to the act, he ought not to do it ; but Williams drew some dis-
tinction or other between " public conscience " and " private
conscience." The sophistry helped Charles. He appointed a
commission, consisting of Arundel and other lords, to give his
assent to the Bill the next day. On the llth, however, he
sent the young Prince of Wales to the Lords with a last
message in Strafford's behalf. It would be " an unspeakable
contentment," he said, if the Lords and Commons would agree
to change Strafford's punishment into close imprisonment for
life, on pain of death without farther process on the least
attempt to escape or to communicate with the King. " If no
less than his life can satisfy my people," the letter ended, " I
must say Fiat justitia " ; and then there was a postscript, sug-
gesting at least a reprieve till Saturday. Neither request was
granted; and on Wednesday, the 12th of May, that proud
curly head, the casket of that brain of power, rolled on the
scaffold on Tower Hill.1
Among those who were most zealous in the prosecution of
Strafford, it must never be forgotten, were not only the men
1 The most vivid account of Straf- (for some interesting particulars, de-
ford's trial is undoubtedly Baillie's (I. rived from D'Ewes's notes), Mr. Fors-
314—350) ; but Kushworth, besides the ter's essay "The Civil Wars and Oliver
references to it in his general collections, Cromwell "in his Historical and Bio-
made it the subject of a distinct folio graphical Essays, I. 252 — 262. See also
volume. But see also Hallam's Const. Clarendon, 72 — 104, and Whitlocke
History, the Parliamentary History, and (edit. 1853), I. 121—133.
1640-41.] MEASURES FOR SECURITY OF PARLIAMENT. 185
whom we are accustomed now to think of as the chiefs of the
Revolution, but many also whom we remember mainly as
Royalists. Of the fifty-nine " Straffordians," as they were
called, who voted against his death in the Commons, and
would have been content with some less punishment, the
leader was Lord Digby ; and Selden, Holborn, and Sidney
Godolphin were of the number. But the list did not include
Hyde, or Falkland, or Colepepper. It was Hyde, too, that was
sent up to the Lords from the Commons to demand a stricter
guard over Strafford in the Tower after the discovery of
the Army -Plot. Hyde would, indeed, have gratified the
King at the last by consenting to the imprisonment and
degradation of Strafford instead of his capital punishment ;
and he tells a story of a pleading he held on this subject one
day in Piccadilly with the Earls of Bedford and Essex, when
Bedford was not unwilling to agree, but Essex stopped the
conversation by signifying that his mind was made up, and
adding emphatically, " Stone-dead hath no fellow." In
fact, the death of Strafford was an act not of this or that
party in the Parliament, but of the Parliament as a whole.
The feeling of the most moderate seems to have been very
much that expressed at the time in the first lines of a rougli
epitaph on Strafford by the Royalist poet Cleveland :—
" Here lies wise and valiant dust,
Huddled up 'twixt fit and just."
III. MEASURES FOR THE SECURITY AND PERPETUATION OF
PARLIAMENT. — What if the King, summoning up courage, or
availing himself of some unexpected turn of affairs, should
dissolve this Parliament, as he had dissolved its predecessors ?
All then would be in vain, all would be flung back. Accord-
ingly, in Pym's very first speech, he had put this matter of the
security of Parliament in the foreground. Not only must
there be full liberty of discussion, exemption from arrest and
the like, for the members of this Parliament ; it must also be
secured against abrupt dissolution. Nay, more than that, this
Parliament must arrange, if possible, for a guaranteed succes-
sion of Parliaments for the future, and so transmit a permaii-
186 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
ent agency that should render impossible in future generations
any such tyranny as that under which the existing generation
laboured. The deliberations on this important subject took
shape at last in the famous Bill for Triennial Parliaments
passed in the Commons Jan. 20, 1640-41, and which, after
passing the Lords, received the King's reluctant assent on the
16th of February. By this Bill, strongly urged by Cromwell
and Strode, and one of the most strenuous supporters of which
was Lord Digby, it was provided that, if the King did not
summon a Parliament every third year at least, then the Lord
Chancellor or Lord Keeper should be bound to issue writs for
a new Parliament, or it should be lawful for any twelve Peers
to issue writs in the King's name, or for the mayors, sheriffs,
&c., or for the citizens themselves, to cause elections to be
made as if such writs had been issued ; and it was also pro-
vided that no Parliament should be dissolved or prorogued,
unless with its own consent, until after it had sat at least fifty
days. By the very terms of this Bill it is evident that the
Parliament then sitting might have been legally dissolved at
the time the Bill was passed. It had then sat more than
three months. There seemed no likelihood, however, at that
time, that the King would resort to such a course. But, as
Strafford's trial went on, and especially after the discovery of
the Army-Plot had spread alarm among the Commons, the
Parliament became more suspicious. On the 3rd of May
1641, in the very midst of the commotion caused by the
discovery of the Army-Plot, the Commons adopted a Pro-
testation, or Resolution for the Common Safety, which was very
much like a copy of the Scottish Covenant in miniature.
The document ran as follows : " I, A. B., do, in the presence
" of Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest to maintain
" and defend, as far as I lawfully may, with my life, power,
" and estate, the true reformed Protestant Eeligion expressed
" in the doctrine of the Church of England, . . . also the
" power and privilege of Parliaments, . . . and, further,
" that I shall, in all just and honourable ways, endeavour to
" preserve the union and peace betwixt the three kingdoms
" of England, Scotland, and Ireland." On the very day on
1640-41.] MISCELLANEOUS REFORMS. 187
which the Protestation was drawn up, it was signed by 429 of
the Commons, Digby, Selden, Colepepper, and Falkland among
them ; on being sent to the Lords, it was signed by upwards
of one hundred in that House, including fifteen bishops ; and
it was then circulated through the shires, that it might be
signed by the whole nation. Nor was this enough, nor was
it even enough that the Parliament arranged to have a trusty
guard at hand near the Houses in case of danger. Amid the
same excitement caused by the Army-Plot there was intro-
duced into the Commons, on the 6th of May, a Bill, enacting
that the existing Parliament should not be dissolved at all except
with its own consent. This extraordinary measure, trenching
more deeply on the rules of the English constitution than any
other that the Long Parliament adopted in its earlier stage,
was eagerly supported by Colepepper, Falkland, and Hyde.
The Lords would have amended the Bill by limiting its
duration to two years ; but, the Commons adhering to the Bill
as it stood, it passed both Houses on the 8th. That Charles
should have assented to this Bill, which, in terms at least,
" rendered the House of Commons," as Hallam says, " inde-
pendent of their sovereign and their constituents," can be
accounted for, that writer suggests, only " by his own shame
and the Queen's consternation at the discovery of the late
Plot." He did assent to it (May 10), empowering the same
Commissioners to pass it whom he had empowered to
pass the Bill condemning Straffbrd. Thus the Parliament,
which met Nov. 3, 1640, was converted into "The Long
Parliament," indissoluble except by its own act1
IV. MISCELLANEOUS CIVIL KEFORMS AND REDRESS OF
GRIEVANCES. — In his first set speech in the Parliament
(Nov. 7, 1640) Pym had made a masterly enumeration and
analysis of the grievances of the country. This speech, in
fact, was the programme of the Session. To overtake the
main grievances individually, however, was a work of time.
The Ship-money grievance was among the first discussed.
Mr. St. John 1 mving presented the report of a committee on
i 1'arl. Ili-t. II. 702 rf tto. ; Ruahworth, IV. 244—258; Hallnm's Conat Hint.
(10th edit), II. 112 et*q.
188 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the subject on the 7th of December, resolutions declaring the
tax illegal, and annulling the judgment that had been given in
Hampden's case, were unanimously adopted, Lord Falkland
being one of the most emphatic speakers in their favour ; and
by this and subsequent proceedings, in which the Lords took
part, the grievance of Ship-money was swept out of the
Statute Book. There was also, of course, a raid against the
swarming monopolies by which Charles, to raise money for
the Crown, had crippled and molested the trade of the nation.
Pym had broken this ground at the outset ; but perhaps the
most effective in his denunciations of monopolies was Cole-
pepper. " These, like the frogs of Egypt," he said, " have
" gotten the possession of our dwellings, and we have scarce a
" room free from them. They sup in our cup, they dip in our
" dish, they sit by our fire ; we find them in the dye- vat, wash-
" bowl, and powdering-tub ; they share with the butler in his
" box ; they have marked and sealed us from head to foot."
As far as the crude Political Economy of those days per-
mitted, monopolies also were swept away, the patent for
wines and the soap-monopoly among the first. The abolition
of the Court of Starchamber and the Court of High Com-
mission was harder to accomplish ; but an Act to which the
King gave his assent July 5, 1641, virtually abolished both.
The regulation of Tonnage and Poundage was the subject of
a vote passed June 22, 1641, by which it was declared that
" it is and has been the ancient right of the subjects of this
" realm that no subsidy, custom, impost, or any charge what-
" soever ought to be laid or imposed upon any merchandise
" exported or imported by subjects, denizens, or aliens, without
" the common consent of Parliament." The Act is memorable
as being, according to Hallam, " the last statute that has been
" found necessary to restrain the Crown from arbitrary taxa-
" tion." Finally, by various Acts in the first nine months of
the Paliament, several anomalous jurisdictions, the effect of
which had been to " deprive one-third of England of the
privileges of the Common Law," were either utterly abolished
or made innocuous. Among these were the Court of the Presi-
dent and Council of Wales, the Court of the President and
1640-41.] THE SCOTTISH TREATY. 189
Council of the North, and the Courts of the Duchy of Lan-
caster and the County Palatine of Chester.1
V. CONCLUSION OF THE SCOTTISH TREATY. — How was it,
the reader may have naturally been asking, that the Parlia-
ment was able to carry all before it in this fashion ? How
was it that Charles found himself so suddenly bound hand
and foot, and hurried along like a log in the current ? That
the English nation was roused from end to end, and ready in
the mass to rally round its Parliament, is true. But there was
a more distinct and visible cause of the weakness of Charles
and of the strength of Parliament during those nine important
months. That Scottish Army, the victorious presence of which
in the North of England had led to the assembling of the
Parliament, and had been hailed so gladly by the English as
furnishing them the required opportunity for self-liberation,
WU still in the North of England to serve its purpose, and
was willing to stay there as long as it might be wanted.
Negotiations, it will be remembered, had been begun between
Charles and that Army, with a view to its return home ; but,
at the time of the meeting of the Long Parliament, these
negotiations had got no farther than a certain preliminary
treaty or truce of thirteen Articles agreed upon at Ripon
(Oct. 16). One of those Articles provided that the Scottish
army should remain in England, to be paid from the English
Exchequer at the rate of 850/. a day, until the Treaty should
be brought to completion ; and, in order to the completion of
the Treaty, it had been agreed that the Scottish Commis-
sioners should come to London, there to continue the nego-
tiation with the English Lords Commissioners.
Leslie's Scottish Army, then, still remained in and about
Newcastle, not only occupying the attention of the broken
relics of Charles's English Army in Yorkshire, so as to make
that army useless for any private purpose of his Majesty, but
actually taken into the service of the English Liberals, if we
may so say, by a retaining fee. There was a perfect under-
standing on the subject between the Scottish leaders and the
of the English Liberals. The Scots, on their
• Part. History, II. 639 ft *q.
190 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
were willing, for neighbourly benevolence, the interests of true
religion, and 8 5 01 a day, to remain in England, so long as
the English thought fit ; and it was for the English Parlia-
ment to contrive that their stay should not be too soon brought
to an end. The expense, indeed, was considerable. Besides
the 850/. per diem to the Scots, there was the accompanying
expense of the maintenance of the residue of the English
army in Yorkshire, which could hardly, for shame's sake, be
disbanded while an army nominally of invaders was on the
English soil. But what was even such a double bill running
on, compared with what it could purchase ? The Parliament
was content, says May, " to be at so great a charge rather than
suffer the Scots to go till businesses were better settled."
Accordingly, utterly ignoring and even resenting the hints
given them by Charles and by .Lord Keeper Finch, in their
speeches at the opening of the Houses, that their first business
ought to be " the chasing out of the rebels," the Parliament
studiously contrived for as long a stay of the Scots as possible.
The immediate conduct of the Scottish Treaty, indeed, did not
lie with Parliament, but with the sixteen English Lords Com-
missioners whom the King had appointed. It was for those
Lords Commissioners, acting for the King, to continue the
negotiations with the Scottish Commissioners, viz. the Earls of
Eothes and Dunfermline, Lord Loudoun, Sir Patrick Hep-
burn, Sir William Douglas, Drurnmond of Eiccarton, Bailie
Smith, Burgesses Wedderburn and Kennedy, Alexander
Henderson, and Johnstone of Warriston, — all of whom had
come up to London for the purpose. But, besides that most
of the English Commissioners were among the liberal leaders
in Parliament, there were means by which Parliament could
directly control the negotiations. It was for the Commons to
pay the bill ; and their policy was to be in no hurry to pay it.
They undertook at once to be responsible for the 850/. per day,
so as to extend the truce of Eipon beyond the 16th of Decem-
ber, which was its original term; and, in addition to this,
they voted, on the 3rd of February, a farther indemnity of
300,000/. to be paid to "our brethren of Scotland" in con-
sideration of their losses by the late war. But the indemnity,
1640-41.] SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS IN LONDON. 191
though voted, was not raised, and Parliament, while sending
tin- Scots sums on account, left the debt running on.
The presence of the Scottish Commissioners in London
for so long a period (Nov. 1640 — June 1641) was important
in more ways than one. In order that Henderson might not
be the only representative of the Scottish clerical element in
the Commission, there had been associated with it, but non-
officially, three other eminent Presbyterian ministers, — Kobert
Baillie, Robert Blair, and young George Gillespie. The
reception of the Scottish visitors, fourteen in all, by the
Londoners had been extremely cordial. Lodgings had been
provided for them first in Covent Garden ; but the Corporation
insisted on having them, or at least most of them, as their
own special guests. Accordingly, during the entire period of
their stay in London, Henderson, Baillie, Blair, and Gillespie,
with some at least of the lay-commissioners, lived in the city,
hospitably lodged and entertained at the expense of the Cor-
poration. The Commissioners were lodged, Clarendon tells us,
" in the heart of the city, near London Stone, in a house which
" used to be inhabited by the Lord Mayor or one of the sheriffs,
" and was situated so near the church of St. Antholin's that
" there was a way out of it into the gallery of the church."
This church, accordingly, was virtually made over to Hender-
son, Baillie, Blair, and Gillespie, — with whom there were also a
Mr.Borthwick and a Mr. Smith, — for their sermons on Sundays
and Thursdays. " To hear these sermons," says Clarendon,
" there was so great a conflux and resort, by the citizens out
" of humour and faction, by others of all qualities out of
" curiosity, and by some that they might the better justify
" the contempt they had of them, that, from the first appear-
" ance of day in the morning on every Sunday to the shutting
" in of the light, the church was never empty." The sermons,
though probably uncouth at first to the English ear as coming
in a North -British accent, can hardly have been so con-
temptible in their Calvinistic kind as Clarendon super-
ciliously imagined. Henderson, as Mr. Hyde had reason to
know, was a man of as massive and well-educated an intel-
lect as was to be found among the clergy of the three king-
192 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
doms ; and Mr. Eobert Baillie (though Hyde could not have
known this) was then writing, in the form of letters to friends,
accounts of those times which, though in Scottish style and
full of Presbyterian prejudice, are now read with admiration
for a graphic power of narrative to which there is hardly a
parallel in seventeenth-century literature, and which checks and
illustrates even the superb pages of a certain Lord Clarendon.
It was part of the business of Henderson and his colleagues
not only to enlighten the Londoners as to the proceedings and
claims of the Scots, but also, if possible, to inoculate them
with Presbyterian sentiments. For the same purpose, they
were in frequent consultation with the English Puritan
ministers of the city and neighbourhood. They and the
other Commissioners were also in constant intercourse with
the Parliamentary leaders of both Houses. Of the lay com-
missioners, Loudoun and Johnstone of Warriston were the
most active ; for the Earl of Rothes, whose name stood first
in the Commission, and who had been to this time perhaps
the most conspicuous of the Covenanters, had begun to yield
to Court-influences. " He is likely," writes Baillie, June 2,
1641, " to be the greatest courtier either of Scots or English.
" Likely, he will take a place in the Bedchamber and be little
" more a Scottish man. If he please, as it seems he inclines,
" he may have my lady Devonshire, a very wise lady, with
" 4,0 OOZ. sterling a year." As Rothes's first wife had died
about a year before, there was nothing to prevent this con-
summation. It would have given Rothes one of the best and
most sensible women in England for his wife, made him
stepfather to the young Earl of Devonshire, and brought him
into connexion with that famous attach^ of the Devonshire
family, Hobbes the philosopher, the tutor of both this Earl
and of his father.1
It was not till June 1641 that the Parliament, having been
informed by the King that the negotiations of the Commis-
sioners were approaching a conclusion, took steps for per-
mitting the Scots to return home. On the 1 8th of that month
there was passed by the Commons the extraordinary and long-
i Baillie, I. 269 et seq., and 354 ; Clarendon, 76, 77, and 112.
1640-41.] THE ENGLISH CHURCH-REFORM MOVEMENT. 193
unheard-of measure of a Poll-tax for the payment of the
Scottish arrears and indemnity. By this tax every English
male person, above the age of sixteen, and not a pauper, was
assessed in a particular sum, by a graduated scale of ranks.
A Duke was to pay 100/. ; a Marquis 80/. ; an Earl or
Bishop 60/. ; a Viscount 50/. ; a Baron or Dean 40/. ; the
Lord Mayor of London 40/. ; the Aldermen of London, and all
Baronets, Knights, Judges, Serjeants-at-Law, King's Counsel
and Canons-resident, sums ranging from 30J. to 20/.; Esquires,
Prebendaries, Doctors of Law or of Physic, 1 01. each ; Common
Councilmen, Liverymen of the first twelve Companies, and all
persons of 100/. a year income, 5/. each ; Liverymen of the
other Companies 21. 10s. ; " every man that may dispend 50/.
per annum" II. 10s. ; freemen of the first twelve Companies
II. ; freemen of other Companies, and merchant-strangers
trading by sea, 10s.; other traders, English or foreign, and
" every man that may dispend 20J. per annum," 5s. ; ordinary
English householders, 2s.; and finally every handicraftsman, or
person whatever, above sixteen years of age, not a pauper, and
not included in the foregoing rates, " 6d. per poll," unless he
were a foreigner, in which case, if a Protestant, he should pay
2d. only, but if a Papist, 4d.1 There was thus brought home
very effectively, but perhaps somewhat disagreeably, to every
English household and family, the sense of national indebted-
ness to the Scots ; and, having nothing more to do in London,
Henderson, Baillie, and others of the Scottish Commissioners,
returned home (June 1641). Certain other details as to the
times and mode of payment had to be arranged, so that it
was not till August that the Treaty was formally signed
and the two armies in the north were disbanded.
THE ENGLISH CHURCH-REFORM MOVEMENT.
One great department of affairs in which, while the Scottish
Commissioners had been in London, Parliament had been pro-
gressively active, and their activity in which had mingled
1 I have copied the rates from a But HOC Common*' Journal*, June 18,
printed copy, m tho 8. P. 0., of the 1641.
House of Commons order for tho tax.
VOL. II 0
194 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
inextricably from day to day and week to week with all their
other proceedings as hitherto related, had been that of Church
Reformation. Here the story becomes more complex ; diver-
sities of opinion and tendency, not observed hitherto in other
departments, present themselves ; and we come in sight of
problems of national polity which even to our own day
have proved insoluble.
In Pym's first great speech in the Parliament he had made
" Prejudice of Eeligion " one of the three main heads in his
survey of the grievances of the nation. " Let Eeligion be our
primum qucerite, for all things else are but etceteras to it," the
veteran Rudyard had said in his pious speech on the same
occasion. And so, from the first day onwards, there is found,
intermingled with the general debates, an amount of theo-
logical discussion, of religious observance by the Parliament
corporately, and of reference to ecclesiastical questions, infinitely
greater than has been usual in English Parliaments in later
times. There were fast-days by Parliamentary appointment ;
there were arrangements by whbh the members of the two
Houses might partake of the Communion at a communion-
table and not at a Laudian altar ; and there were regular
sermons on Sundays and on fast-days before the Commons
by select Puritan preachers. Almost immediately, too, the
Houses, and especially the Commons, broke ground by specific
enactments intended to afford relief to Puritan consciences
and to discourage Laudism. One speedy blow at the Laudian
party collectively was in connexion with the conduct of the
Clergy in the preceding spring, when they had presumed to sit
in Convocation after the dissolution of the Short Parliament,
and to frame a body of new Ecclesiastical Canons. That pro-
cedure of the former Convocation having really brought all
concerned within the reach of the law, the new Convocation
which met at the same time as the Long Parliament was
weak and pusillanimous in comparison. " The Convocation
meets twice a week," writes Baillie, Dec. 12, 1640, " but do
nothing." On the 15th and 16th of the same month there
were unanimous Resolutions in the Commons condemning the
late canons as illegal, and declaring the clergy absolved from
1640-41.] THE ENGLISH CHURCH-REFORM MOVEMENT. 195
all obedience to them ; and so for the time that matter rested.
Other specimens of the vigilance of Parliament from the first
in ecclesiastical matters were such as these : — Dec. 1, " Bill
read in the Commons for reform of the Ecclesiastical Courts";
Dec. 22, "Committee of Commons appointed on the state of
the Universities as to Religion " ; Jan. 20, 1640-41, " Com-
mons resolve that the statute, passed twenty-seven years
before, requiring young students at Cambridge to subscribe
the 36th canon of 1603, is illegal " ; Jan. 23, " Ordered by the
Commons that commissions be sent into all counties for the
defacing, demolishing, and quite taking away of all images,
altars or tables turned altar- wise, crucifixes, superstitious pic-
tures, monuments, and relics of idolatry, out of all churches
and chapels." ] There were also enactments for the better
observance of the Lord's Day, and, of course, again and
again, for the more rigid control of the Roman Catholics.
All this, however, was, as one may say, in the programme.
Over this extent of ground, and a good deal more, the
Parliament may be considered to have been carried pretty
unanimously by the impetus communicated to it at its first
assembling. But it was different with the great ecclesiastical
question which had been gathering like a cloud in the Houses
from the first, and which soon burst into a tempest rolling all
else in its midst. This was the question of a Reform of the
Constitution of the Church of England.
Laud being hors de combat, and Laudism pure and simple a
rejected impossibility, there were, in the months of November
and December 1640, so far as observation can now discern,
three parties in England on the Church Question.
In the first place there was what may be called a HIGH
CHURCH PARTY. It consisted of all those Laudians who,
though now bereft of their chief, and of the hope of pre-
serving his system in its completeness, were yet resolute for
retaining whatever of his system could be retained, together
with all those who, though they had not been Laudians
theologically, had of late been approximating to Laud ecclesi-
» Parl. Hist. ; Baillio, I. 282 ; Rushworth, IV, 100-111.
196 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
astically. At the head of this party was indubitably Hall,
Bishop of Exeter. Hall's treatise, Episcopacy ~by Divine Right,
concocted between him and Laud in the preceding year, and
now in circulation for some ten months, had been the pro-
clamation of a union between the Laudians and the non-
Laudian lovers of High-Episcopal government. It was the
manifesto of their united policy. Most of the other Bishops,
so far as they were at liberty to act publicly, may be con-
sidered as effectives of this party under Hall's leadership.
The party was also strong in the two Universities, particularly
that of Oxford ; and generally it was strong among the
churchmen of superior rank. Of the nine thousand and odd
parish-clergy of England I should suppose that 4,000 were of
this party, holding by Episcopacy as of divine right, either
in Laud's high sense of transmitted Apostolical order, or in
Hall's nearly as high sense, or in some sense that disposed
them to stand firmly for the supreme excellence of Episcopal
rule. But, though strong in the Church, the party was very
far from being strong among the laity. A few of the stateliest
peers, and a family among the gentry here and there, may
have had a real affection for Episcopacy as such. There
were perhaps more in the same ranks who loved a rich ritual
in the Church service, as they loved the ivy that clothed the
old church porches, and who identified, as Laud did, not only
the liturgy, but the white surplices, the altar, the music,
the painted windows, and all symbols and ceremonies, with
the true and perfect beauty of holiness. But these were the
exceptions. The great body of the laity, whether in or out
of Parliament, were by no means so conservative.
A far larger mass of the laity belonged to a second party,
which may be called the MODERATE or BROAD CHURCH PARTY.
This party, though attached, on the whole, to Episcopacy and
to its appertaining forms of worship, as intermingled with the
traditions and the habits of English life, were yet not only
ready for very considerable changes in the government and
worship of the church, but also convinced that the time for
such changes had arrived. There were many subsections in
this party ; but, with allowance for gradations of view, all of
1640-41.] THE ENGLISH CHURCH-REFORM MOVEMENT. 19?
them may be considered as aiming at a " Limited Episcopacy,"
instead of the Episcopacy then established. In both Houses
of Parliament the representatives of the party were numerous.
In the Upper House, with the exception of the Bishops, and
perhaps a very few lay Peers, even those who were the soundest
Church -of-Englaud men were Church-of-England men in a
moderate sense. While they would preserve the Episcopal
organization of the Church, they would do so from no belief
in its absolutely divine or apostolical right, but on simpler
grounds of expediency and national fitness ; and they would
at the same time press for a great reduction of the power of
the Bishops, and of the clergy generally. Still more in the
Commons was this the type of Church-of-Englandism that
prevailed. Falkland, Colepepper, Lord Digby, Kudyard,
Selden, Harbottle Grimstone, and others, both country
gentlemen and lawyers, who were thought among the
soundest Church-of-Eugland men in the House, had this
reputation simply because, while advocating retrenchments
of the clerical and Episcopal power, they were still for
retaining an Episcopal constitution of the Church as the
fittest for England. Even Hyde, who was considerably
more of a High-Churchman than his friend Falkland, had all
a lawyer's contempt for the political pretensions of the clergy,
and for clerical jurisdictions in the State. Nor was this
Moderate or Broad Church Party without a large representa-
tion among the clergy themselves. If we take the party in
its widest extension, it was perhaps as numerous among the
parish-clergy as the High Church party ; but, if Falkland's or
Digby's views were made the standard of the party, then its
numbers among the parish-clergy were probably much less.
Among the clergy themselves, however, the party had at least
two leaders of note. One of these was Archbishop Usher.
Although of the Irish Church, Usher was, both from his high
character and his reputation for colossal learning, a prelate to
whom all England would, in any case, have listened with
respect As it chanced, however, he had recently come over
from Dublin, in Stratford's train, for some literary researches
in the libraries in Oxford and London, and had taken up
198 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
his stay in England, never to return. Usher's views of
Episcopacy were not now to be ascertained for the first time.
All the world knew him, from his former writings, to be one
of those who did not believe in the absolute divine right of
Episcopacy, or even in its essentially Apostolical origin, but
only in its high convenience and advantages. He was one of
those who maintained that in the primitive Church there had
been no distinction, or next to no distinction, between Presbyter
and Bishop, and whose ideal of a proper Church government
was a system of limited Episcopacy, in which, while there
should be Bishops as presidents over districts, they should be
aided by councils of Presbyters, and even controlled by synods
of Presbyters. During his Irish Primacy, it is true, he had
been overborne by the ascendency of Laud, and had seen,
with grief, the Protestant Church of Ireland deprived of her
Calvinistic independence, and assimilated to the Church of
England. But, now that affairs had changed their direction
in England itself, it was not impossible that the services of
this meek and learned man, who had no feeling towards Laud
and Strafford in their downfall but that of faithful respect
and pity, should be in request for the purposes of mediation.
The King had begun to be aware of this fact, and to regard
Usher's presence in England as not unimportant.1 There
was, however, among the English Bishops themselves, one to
whom, whether as a colleague in the work with Usher, or as a
likely leader by himself, the eyes of all the Moderate or Broad
Church Party might have been turned. This was our old
friend, Williams of Lincoln. Restored to public life by the
meeting of the Long Parliament, it was in accordance with all
that was known of the character of this Bishop that he would
not miss the opportunity of reminding men of his existence
and of his former suddenly-eclipsed greatness in the State.
He was sure in some way or another to try a flashing part.
It was equally certain that, whatever part he might take, it
would not be in support of the Laudian system. But, on the
other hand, it was tolerably certain that a crusade against
1 Elrington's Life of Usher prefixed Works themselves, XII. 927 ; Rush-
to his "Works," pp. 207—209; the worth, IV. 187; Baillie, I. 287-
1640-41.] THE ENGLISH CHURCH-REFORM MOVEMENT. 199
Episcopacy would have no countenance from Williams.
While in prison, he had scouted the idea of a Reformation of
the English Church after the Scottish model ; and, since his
release, he had been heard to say of the Presbyterian system
that it was a " government fit only for tailors and shoemakers,
and the like, and not for noblemen and gentlemen." l In
short, if a new organization of the Church of England was
wanted, differing from the existing organization, or from
anything that Laud or Hall would have considered tolerable,
but still preserving the features of Episcopacy and stopping
short of ecclesiastical democracy, Williams was the man to
offer to be the inventor.
Distinct from both the High Church Party and the Moderate
or Middle Party was a third and extreme mass of English-
men, to whom may be given the name of the ROOT-AND-
BRANCH PARTY. I adopt this name because " root-and-
branch " was a favourite phrase of their own ; but, with almost
equal accuracy, I might, for the nonce, call them simply The
Presbyterian Party. They desired the abolition of Episcopacy,
" root and branch," the annihilation of all dignities in the
Church above that of simple presbyter or parish-minister, a
simplification of the ritual of the Church to correspond, and
the appropriation of all the ecclesiastical revenues that would
be available after the abolition of Bishoprics, Deaneries and
Chapters, Archdeaconries, and the like, to humbler religious
uses, or to the general uses of the State. As the recent revo-
lution in the Scottish Church was the freshest and nearest
example for imitation in this direction, and as, indeed, sympathy
witli that revolution was for the time the omnipotent feeling
of the party, the aim which it mainly proposed to itself was
the establishment in England of a Church, as nearly as might
be, of the Scottish Presbyterian fashion. There was no per-
fect or precise agreement as to the degree of similarity to the
Scottish Kirk which might be consistent with the conditions
of English life. There were even seeds, as we shall see, of
theories which were in the end to declare Presbyterianism
insulUcient and to quarrel with it. But at the exact time now
» Clarendon, Ili-t. 140.
200 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
under notice (Nov. and Dec. 1640) the collective tendency of
the party was indubitably to such a total re-organization of
the English Church as should bring it into union and corre-
spondence with that of the Scots on the basis of a common
Presbyterianism for the whole Island. This Eadical or
Eoot-and-Branch party was numerically, perhaps, the strongest
of the three. Among the Clergy, indeed, it was comparatively
very weak. About thirty of the clergy then assembled in
Convocation were considered to belong to it or to be tending
to it l ; and, if as many as 1,000 or 1,500 of the more extreme
Puritans among the parish clergy of England were considered
as either belonging to it or convertible to it by circumstances,
that was perhaps an exaggerated calculation. But among the
laity it was enormously and growingly powerful. Not without
a sprinkling among the nobility and wealthier gentry, it
had a large number of adherents among the minor gentry,
while in the great body of the people it counted its tens of
thousands. London was its stronghold and head- quarters,
the traditional Puritanism of that city having now almost
avowedly taken the form of a phrenzy for Presbyterianism.
Most of the other considerable towns were centres of the
same feeling ; and there were particular counties, more
especially the eastern counties of Essex, Suffolk, Cambridge,
Huntingdon and Bedford, and the north-western counties of
Lancaster and Chester, where Eoot-and-Branch principles were
distinctly predominant among the farmers and ten an try. 2-
And who were the leaders of this powerful popular party ?
On first thoughts it might be supposed that those who had
done and suffered so much as pioneers of the party during
the recent ascendency of " Thorough ", — the Leightons, the
Prynnes, the Burtons, and the Bastwicks, — would now step
forth as the leaders. But public feeling is capricious, and at
the same time shrewd, in such matters. Though it had been
for expressing sentiments which thousands of their fellow-
1 Baillie, I. 282: "There is some 2 The proofs for these statements are
thirty of them well minded for removing various and scattered. Some exist in
of Episcopacy, and many more for the shape of petitions from counties in
paring of Bishops' nails and arms too :" printed collections of the time, or still
Dec. 12, 1640. in MS. in the S. P. 0.
1840-41.] THE ENGLISH CHURCH-REFORM MOVEMENT. 201
countrymen were now expressing without danger that these
men had had their noses slit and their ears cropped off, yet
there was a feeling that men who had fared so ignomi-
niously, however it had happened, would not do for leaders.
Accordingly, though Prynne continued to be an indefatigable
writer of Presbyterian pamphlets, of the heavy and learned
sort, in his Lincoln's Inn chambers, and although young
Lilburne continued to be a popular favourite under the name
of " Free-born John," it was among men of a different stamp
that the Root-and- Branch party sought its real chiefs. Quite
as unfit for the duty were most of those new pamphleteers
who, availing themselves of the sudden liberty of writing by
the break -down of the censorship, were now daily venting,
and for the most part anonymously, repetitions of Prynne's
and Bastwick's arguments. It was among the members of the
two Houses, and among such of the Puritan clergy of the
most advanced type as had the greatest reputation for sagacity
and learning, that the true leaders presented themselves. In
the Upper House there were Viscount Saye and Sele, Viscount
Mandeville, and Lord Brooke, all three in advance of the
Earl of Bedford in their notions of Church-Reform, and in
effect, for the present, Presbyterians. In the Lower House,
gradually influencing Pym himself, whose constitutional
inclinations were more moderate, were men like Hampden,
Cromwell, and Vane. Cromwell, we find, was about this
tune expressing his interest in certain papers which the
Scots had put forth, arguing for a conformity of Religion
between the two countries.1 Among the English Puritan
clergy were some half-dozen or more, either ministers of
London parishes, or then up in London for the Convocation
or for other purposes, who formed a kind of working com-
mittee of the Root-and- Branch party. A chief man among
these was Mr. Cornelius Burges, rector of St. Magnus,
London, and vicar of Watford ; but also notable individually
were these five : Mr. Stephen Marshall, minister of Finching-
tit-ld in FCssex ; Mr. Edmund Calamy, minister of St. Mary
Alderman bury, London ; Mr. Thomas Young, vicar of Stow-
1 ( .irlylo's Cromwell (edit. 1857), I. 85.
202 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
market in Suffolk, once Milton's preceptor ; Matthew
Newcomen, minister of Dedham in Essex ; and Mr. William
Spurstow, minister of Hampden in Bucks, the parish of John
Hampden. In constant intercourse with these ministers, and
with conspicuous London citizens of similarly Presbyterian
tendencies, were the clerical members of the Scottish deputa-
tion, Henderson, Baillie, Blair, and Gillespie. They shared
in all the counsels of the Eoot-and-Branch party, and were
its Scottish advisers and auxiliaries. " The root of Epis-
copacy," Baillie wrote home, in December 1640, to the
brethren of his Presbytery in Ayrshire, " will be assaulted
" with the strongest blast it ever felt in England. Let your
" hearty prayers be joined with mine and of many millions
" that the breath of the Lord's nostrils may join with the
" endeavours of weak men to blow up that old gourd wicked
" oak." l
Properly, I ought now to go on to narrate in this chapter
the first efforts made in Parliament and out of it to accomplish
the feat which Baillie thought so desirable. That story,
however, though chronologically it belongs in part to this
chapter, will be best reserved for the chapter after next.
i Baillie, I. 286-7.
CHAPTBB II.
THE HOUSE IN ALDERSOATE STREET.
WITHOUT as yet knowing the fact, the Root-and- Branch
party had a possible leader at hand in one Englishman who,
though neither in the Church nor in Parliament, and though
with a character and thoughts of his own which might have
made his party services at any time difficult either to obtain
or to keep, yet did at this time assent with his whole soul to
the Anti - Prelatic movement. He hailed that movement
among his countrymen, and he was willing to bring to its aid
a genius compared with which the utmost clerical abilities of
the Burgeses, Calamys, and Spurstows, and even the higher
and more liberal intellect of the Parliamentary Hampdens
and Vanes, were but as honest homely web, or some richer
native fabric, compared with cloth of Arras. He was a
man well known to Mr. Thomas Young of Stowmarket, for
he had been Young's pupil some eighteen years before ; and,
had it been necessary, Young could have introduced him to
his associates in the committee of English Puritan ministers
then acting, along with the Scottish Commissioners, in behalf
of Koot-and-Branch opinions. Probably no such introduc-
tion was necessary. London was a smaller place then than
it is now ; and John Milton, M.A. of Cambridge, and a
Londoner born and bred, was probably, at thirty-two years
of age, better known among the clergy and scholars of the
city than Young himself.
We left Milton in lodgings in St. Bride's Churchyard near
Fleet Street, among his books and papers, with his younger
nephew, Johnny Phillips, boarding with him, ami tin* other
204 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
nephew, Edward Phillips, coming in for his lessons. But he
was now no longer in that locality. " He made no long stay,"
says Edward Phillips, " in his lodgings in St. Bride's Church-
" yard : necessity of having a place to dispose his books in,
" and other goods fit for the furnishing of a good handsome
" house, hastening him to take one ; and, accordingly, a pretty
" garden-house he took in Aldersgate Street, at the end of an
" entry, and therefore the fitter for his turn, besides that there
" are few streets in London more free from noise than that."
Phillips does not give the date of this removal ; but, if it was
in the winter of 1639-40 that Milton went into his St. Bride's
Churchyard lodgings, it is implied that his stay there cannot
have extended to the following winter, but that before the
opening of the Long Parliament he was in Aldersgate Street.
We know, at all events, that he was there, a settled London
householder, paying rates and taxes, very shortly after the
opening of the Parliament. We know more than this. It
is possible to fix with something like precision the part of
Aldersgate Street in which Milton lived. Taking a walk in
that portion of the present London, — now uninviting enough,
given over as it is to second-rate shops of all sorts, with an
occasional distillery or other such place of business inter-
spersed, while a ceaseless roll of omnibuses and heavily-
loaded waggons proves how irredeemably it is included in
the noisiest core of the city, — one can yet, with the aid of
the antique houses of Milton's day which still remain in it,
realize what it was when Milton liked it for its quiet, and
daily passed through it to or from his dwelling.
From St. Martin's-le-Grand, where the Post Office now
stands, and makes a much clearer space than once existed
between Cheapside and Aldersgate, the present Aldersgate
Street (thanks to the discretion of the Great Fire) stretches
away northwards very much as the old one did. It stretches
away northwards a full fourth of a mile as one continuous
thoroughfare, until, crossed by Long Lane and the Barbican,
it parts with the name of Aldersgate Street, and, under the
new names of Goswell Street and Goswell Eoad, completes its
lazy tendency towards the suburbs and fields about Islington.
1640-41.] THE HOUSE IN ALDERSGATE STREET. 205
Two centuries and a half ago the line of direction was the
same. There was the same general aspect of a main street,
with one or two smaller streets and a good many lanes, alleys,
or entries, branching out of it on both sides. Little Britain
was on the one side as now, and Jewin Street on the other,
with Trinity Court, Westmoreland Alley, Black Horse Alley,
Half-moon Court, &c., on the Little Britain side, and Cooks'
Hall Court, Greyhound Court, Ball Alley, Golden Lion Court,
Maidenhead Court, Angel Alley, &c., on the Jewin Street side.
But, with all this sameness of the general arrangement, and
even with houses then standing in the street which stand
there still, the Aldersgate Street of that day was very
differently related to the rest of London from the present
street, and very different-looking. In the first place, at the
entrance to the street from St. Martin's-le-Grand, and dis-
tinctly marking the street as being beyond the city- wall,
there was then to be seen the actual Gate from which the
street derived its name. It was one of the seven well-known
Gates which had given access from the country to the original
city at different points of its circuit, and which were still
conspicuous inlets from the sparser fringe of streets beyond
the walls to the central block within them.1 The Gate then
standing was but a recent structure, having been erected as
lately as 1617 instead of a far older gate, " Alders' Gate,"
which had long fallen into ruin, though it had served in
Kli/abeth's time as premises for John Day, the printer. In
compliment to King James, who had entered London at this
point when he first came from Scotland, the city-authorities
had made a rather fine thing of the new Gate. It consisted
of two square towers of four storeys at the sides, pierced
with narrow portals for the foot-passengers, and connected by
a curtain of masonry of the same height across the street,
1 laving the main archway in the middle. On both faces of
this masonry over the archway, as well as in the niches in the
towers, there were sculptures of King James (on horseback
on the Aldersgate Street side, as coming to take possession,
i The seven gates wore Aldgate, Biahopagate, Moorgate, Crij.plegate,
Aldoragate, Newgate, and Ludgato.
206 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
but on his throne judging the people on the St. Martin's-le-
Grand side, as then actually in possession) ; together with
figures of the prophets Samuel and Jeremiah, and relevant
texts from their books.
After passing through so imposing a gateway from St.
Martin's-le-Grand, you would expect the street to which it led
to be of a superior suburban character. Accordingly, on the
left side, just beyond the Gate, was St. Botolph's Church, the
predecessor of the present church of the same name; and,
passing it, you had nearly a third of a mile of " fair build-
ings " on both sides " till ye come to Long Lane," as Stow
wrote in 1603. Describing the street in 1657, Howell could
say, " This street resembleth an Italian street more than any
" other in London, by reason of the spaciousness and uni-
" formity of the buildings and straightness thereof, with the
" convenient distance of the houses." This suggests that,
though there were off-alleys and passages from the street, as
now, there was on the whole greater airiness between the
houses, with considerable open spaces behind them, in lieu
of that close network of dingy and populous courts, in which
even the postman must now lose himself. In those back-
spaces, reached by courts or by blind entries from the street,
there might well be " garden-houses," or houses with small
gardens attached to them ; and in one such garden-house,
" at the end of an entry," and therefore well secluded, Milton
lived.
It is possible that the entry may remain. On this chance,
one would gladly go up all the present courts and entries on
both sides of Aldersgate Street rather than miss what might
be the right one, though not in one of them would there be
the least hope of identifying the garden-house. But no such
vague exploration through the whole length of the street is
necessary. The Wards of London, or districts represented
by Aldermen, are subdivided into smaller portions, called
Precincts, each represented by a Common Councilman ; and
Aldersgate Ward in its totality consisted of eight precincts,
four within the gate and four without the gate. The four
precincts without the gate, including the whole of Aldersgate
1640-41.] THH HOUSE IN ALDERSGATE STREET. 207
Street with its courts and purlieus, were called respectively
the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Precincts of St. Botolph's
Parish ; and it was in " the Second Precinct of St. Botolph's
Parish " that Milton resided. That is, he resided in some entry
going off from that part of the street which was nearest the
Gate, and which is to be paced now between St. Martin's-le-
Grand and the vicinity of Maidenhead Court on the right
side of the street, and between Little Britain and Westmore-
land Alley on the left side. The old maps have given me
an impression that there was most room for " garden-houses "
on the right side.
Whether Milton's house was on the right side of Aldersgate
Street, or on the Little Britain side, he had very respectable
neighbours. In the same Second Precinct with himself, and
therefore within a few houses from him, lived his old friend
and teacher, Dr. Alexander Gill, now dismissed by the
Mercers from the head-mastership of St. Paul's School on a
retiring allowance of 251. a year, and keeping a private
academy ; and, besides Gill, in the same Precinct, were the
following persons: Mr. Vernon, a counsellor; Richard
Musckle, a weaver, and his wife; Richard Dawson, an
attorney ; Mrs. Pallavicini, widow, a relation of Cromwell's ;
John Welsford, parish-clerk of St. Botolph's, and his wife ;
Prosper Rainsford, gentleman ; Jokay Matthews, gentleman,
with his wife, and four servants ; Justinian Povey, auditor,
with his wife, daughter, and four servants ; John Birch,
gentleman, and his wife ; and Sir Thomas Cecil. Not in
the same Precinct, but quite near, in Little St Bartholomew
Parish, to be reached through Little Britain, lived Dr.
Theodore Diodati, with his new wife. In the Poll-tax return
from which these names are taken Milton appears among them
under the designation " Jo. Milton, gent," and as having one
servant named " Jane Yates." If there were other persons in
the household, they must have been under sixteen years of
age. But, in " a pretty garden-house," handsomely furnished,
as Phillips tells us it was, Milton, even but with one servant,
was probably as well off as most of his neighboura Besides
the houses of Mr. Jokay Matthews, Mr. Auditor Povey, and
208 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Sir Thomas Cecil, there were, indeed, farther up Aldersgate
Street, but giving dignity to the whole street, houses of more
aristocratic rank than Milton's. In the street, or immediately
off it, on one side, was Thanet House, the town-house of
the Earls of Thanet, and, on the other side, Peter House, the
town-house of the Earl of Kingston, while in the adjacent
Barbican was the town-house of the Bridgewater family.
Taking a walk out of Aldersgate Street towards the country,
Milton would pass those houses, and the fine grounds about
the Charter House, also the Bell Inn and one or two other
inns, and, much sooner than one can now fancy in that
neighbourhood, would be footing the open fields.1
In the house in Aldersgate Street, with Jane Yates to keep
it in order, Milton continued the tuition of his two nephews.
" Here first it was," says Edward Phillips, " that his
" academic erudition was put in practice and vigorously
" proceeded, he himself giving an example to those under
" him (for it was not long after his taking this house ere his
" elder nephew was put to board with him also) of hard
" study and spare diet." Phillips, the elder nephew here
spoken of, introduces at this point a sketch of that " academic
erudition " of Milton's, or peculiar and original system of
teaching, of which he and his brother John began about this
time to have the full benefit. We shall have a better oppor-
tunity hereafter of adverting to that interesting subject.
1 My authorities for this account of with a communication from a former
the Aldersgate Street house are : — Life resident in the Aldersgate part of
of Milton by Phillips ; Hunter's Mil- London, certifying that he and his wife
ton Gleanings (1850), pp. 24, 27, where were well acquainted about sixty years
information is cited from an Exchequer before (i.e. between 1810 and 1820)
Record entitled ' ' A Book of the names with the house then reputed by tradi-
and surnames, degrees, ranks, and qua- tion to have been Milton's. It was
lities of all the inhabitants of the Ward (pretty much as I had conjectured) at
of Aldersgate, London. July 1641," the back of that portion of Aldersgate
drawn up for the Poll-tax for the Scot- Street which lay between Maidenhead
tish indemnity ; Stow's London by Court and what is now called Shaftes-
Strype ; Maps of Aldersgate Ward, bury Place. There was an entrance to
giving the boundaries of the precincts ; the house from Maidenhead Court ;
minute personal comparison of these but the main entrance was by the
maps with the present Aldersgate Shaftesbury Place passage out of Al-
Street ; Cunningham's Hand-book of dersgate Street. The garden-ground
London ; Wood's Athenae, III. 42, 43. between the house and the street had
— I may add that, in August 1871, been of considerable extent, till blocked
shortly after the publication of the first by rows of tenements,
edition of this volume, I was favoured
1640-41.] THE HOUSE IN ALDERSGATE STREET. 209
In the meantime, what Phillips adds respecting Milton's
relaxations from his own hard studies and from his trouble
with the two boys is more to the purpose. " Only this
" advantage he had," says Phillips, " that once in three weeks
" or a month he would drop into the society of some young
•' sparks of his acquaintance, whereof were Mr. Alphry and
" Mr. Miller, two gentlemen of Gray's Inn, the beaux of
" those times, but nothing near so bad as those now-a-days
" [i.e. in 1694, when Phillips was writing]. With these gen-
" tlemen he would so far make bold with his body as now and
" then to keep a gaudy-day." Why Phillips should have
recollected, among his uncle's acquaintances of the Aldersgate
Street period, those two gentlemen in particular (whom I
identify with a " Thomas Alfray of Catsfield, Sussex," and a
" John Miller of Litton, Middlesex," admitted of Gray's Inn
in the years 1633 and 1628 respectively1), does not appear.
Perhaps it was because, as being the beaux of those times,
they made a greater impression upon the two boys than more
important men. For, whatever acquaintances Milton may
have had of this sort, they interfered little with those occupa-
tions to which, since his return to England, he Jiad secretly
pledged himself. What they were we already know. He was
ruminating that great literary work which posterity should
not willingly let die ; and, having made up his mind that
it should be some great English poem, he was collecting all
sorts of Scriptural subjects, and subjects from British His-
tory, making notes for each, and weighing them against
each other. Those pages of Jottings, now preserved at Cam-
l»ri«lxre, which we have seen him busy over in his lodging
in St. Bride's Churchyard, accompanied him into his house
in Aldersgate Street.
Probably for no mind in England had the opening of the
I. -MI •_' Parliament sounded a proclamation of great coming
changes more rousingly than for Milton's. A Puritan by
family -training from his boyhood, he had been so much
of a Puritan in his subsequent youth, after a higher and
' Li*t* of Admiwon* to GrnyV Inn, Hurl. MS. 1,912, f. 85 and f. 127.
vol.. II P
210 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
rarer fashion of his own devising, that he had shrunk from
entering the Church for which he had been destined by his
parents. He had preferred the prospect of a solitary intel-
lectual life, unattached, undignified, and apparently " cut off
from all action," rather than launch himself on a career which
he considered that Laud and the like of Laud had blasted,
made dishonourable, and indeed nauseous. It had become
a career to be shunned, as he says daringly, by all consciences
save such as " could not retch " ; and his was not such a con-
science. He had resolved not to be a Churchman. But the
reasons for the resolution were always in his memory. During
the eight years which had elapsed since he had taken it, his
conduct had been that of a man " church-outed by the Pre-
lates," and with a fund of rage in him on that account
against the existing system in Church and State, though
compelled, like the rest of his countrymen, to be silent and
prudent. Among his friends, doubtless, he had spoken out ;
but in anything he had published it was only the general
tone, and perhaps a passage here and there, too obscure and
subtle to alarm the censorship, that had revealed the strength
of his politics. Of all that he had written, perhaps a passage
in his Lycidas, published in 16 38, had approached the nearest
to what Laud, had it been brought to his notice, would have
pronounced to be a libel. It is that passage in which, among
the various lamentations on the death of Edward King, there
is introduced one supposed to be spoken by St. Peter as the
representative of the Church : —
" How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,
Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake,
Creep and intrude and climb into the fold !
Of other care they little reckoning make
Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast
And shove away the worthy bidden guest.
Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how to hold
A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least
That to the faithful herdman's art belongs !
What recks it them ? What need they 1 They are sped ;
And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.
1640-41] THE HOUSE IN ALDERSGATE STREET. 211
The hungry sheep look up and are not fed,
But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly and foul contagion spread,
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace, and nothing said.
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once and smite no more."
What did Milton mean by the last two lines ? What was
that metaphorical " two-handed engine " which was to break
open the door of the corrupted Church and let in reform and
light ? Commentators have been sorely puzzled. The " axe
of the Gospel," say some ; " the literal axe that was to smite
off Laud's head," say others more foolishly ; the sword of the
Archangel Michael which he wielded with " huge two-handed
sway," say a third party, all in the clouds and vague. May
not Milton, whatever else he meant, have meant a coming
English Parliament with its two Houses? Whatever he
meant, his prophecy had come true. As he sat among his
books in Aldersgate Street, the two-handed engine at the door
of the English Church was already on the swing. Once,
twice, thrice, it had swept its arcs to gather energy ; now it
was on the backmost poise, and the blow was to descend.
Milton's own words give the best description of the state of
his mind at this moment. " As soon as might be, in affairs
" so disturbed and fluctuating," he says, " I, looking about for
" a place in which to establish myself, hired (condiixi) a house
" in the city sufficiently large for me and my books, and there
" betook myself happily enough to my intermitted studies,
" committing the issue of affaire to God in the first place,
" and to those next to whom the people gave that duty in
" trust. Meanwhile, the Parliament proceeding with the busi-
" ness strenuously, the pride of the Bishops was brought down.
" As soon as the liberty of speech at least began to be granted,
" all mouths were opened against the Bishops : some to
" expostulate on the vices of the men ; others on the vice of
t h«- order itself, — that it was an unjust thing that the English
" should tlifli-r from all Churches, as many as were Reformed,
;iii'l that it was fit that the Church should be governed by
212 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" the example of the brethren, but most of all according to
" the will of God. Boused by the cognisance of these things,
" inasmuch as I perceived that the true way to liberty fol-
" lowed on from these beginnings, these first steps, — that the
" advance was most rightly made to a liberation of the entire
" life of men from servitude if a discipline taking its rise
" within religion should go forth thence to the manners and
" institutions of the Commonwealth, — and inasmuch also as
" I had so prepared myself from my youth that above all
" things I could not be ignorant what is of divine and what
" of human right, and had asked myself whether ever I should
" be of any use afterwards if then I should be wanting to
" my country, yea, to the Church, and to so many brethren
" exposing themselves to danger for the cause of the Gospel :
" I resolved, though I was then meditating certain other
" matters, to transfer into this struggle all my genius and all
" the strength of my industry. First, accordingly, I . . ." ]
Here I interrupt the quotation, leaving the exact results of
those deliberations of Milton to appear presently.
During the months of November and December 1640, and
thence onwards, let the reader fancy Milton passing from
and to his house in Aldersgate Street, with such thoughts in
his mind as he has himself described. Now and then, per-
haps, he is a spectator, with others, at the doors of the two
Houses in Westminster, while Bedford, Saye and Sele, Pym,
Hampden, Cromwell and others are entering. Certainly, at
this time he is in the habit of seeing Young, Calamy, and
others of the Eoot-and-Branch Puritan ministers in London.
He sees them, I should say, more frequently than the two
Gray's Inn beaux, Messrs. Miller and Alphry.
1 Defensio Secunda pro Pop. Angl. : Works, VI. 289, 290.
CHAPTER III.
THE CHURCH QUESTION IN AND OUT OP PARLIAMENT BISHOP
HALL AND SMECTYMNUUS BISHOPS1 EXCLUSION BILL — SCHEMES
OP LIMITED EPISCOPACY A ROOT-AND-BRANCH BILL.
THE Root-and-Branch party made the first great move. As
early as Nov. 13, 1640, there had been petitions to the
Commons for Church -reform from the " nobility, knights,
gentry, ministers, &c.," of the counties of Bedford and
Warwick ; and other petitions had followed. But on the
llth of December there came what was then considered a
monster petition. It was a petition from the City of London,
signed by no fewer than 15,000 persons (Milton probably one
of them), and presented by Alderman Pennington, one of the
members for the City, whom a great crowd had accompanied
to the House. " Whereas the government of Archbishops and
" Lord-Bishops, Deans and Archdeacons, &c., with their courts
" and ministrations in them, hath proved prejudicial and very
" dangerous both to the Church and Commonwealth " : so the
petition began ; and, after a few more sentences of accusation,
supported by an appended schedule of twenty-eight parti-
culars, it wound up : " We therefore most humbly pray and
" IM-SIMM-II this IIi»iiiiur;iMr Assriiililv, tin- premises r..nsiilriv<l.
" that the said government, with all its dependencies, roots,
" and branches, may be abolished, and all laws in their
" behalf made void, and the government according to God's
" word may be rightly placed among us." This petition was
very respectfully received by the Commons, as were also
subsequent petitions more or less in the same strain. On the
12th of January there were Anti-Episcopal petitions simul-
taneously from three counties, one being the county of Kent ;
214 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
on the 19th there was a similar petition from the city of
Gloucester; and on the 23rd there was a petition as notable
as even the London petition. It was called " The Ministers'
Petition," and was signed by 700 ministers of the Church of
England. Without actually praying for the abolition of
Episcopacy, it urged the removal of the Bishops from Parlia-
ment, and of Clergymen generally from all secular offices,
and also the revision of the offices and revenues of Deans
and Chapters, and the admission of the body of the Clergy
to a share in ordination and other ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
Possibly some of those who signed it shrank as yet from
absolute Eoot-and-Branch.1
Stunned at first by the mere meeting of the Long Parlia-
ment, the High Church Party had hitherto not dared to speak,
but had waited to know the amount of humiliation to which
they were to be subjected. But, after the London and the
other petitions, with the commentary upon them furnished
by daily pamphlets, Bishop Hall thought that longer silence
would be culpable. In the last week of January there
appeared from his pen a pamphlet of 43 small quarto pages
with this title : " Humble Remonstrance to the High Court of
Parliament : By a Dutiful Sonne of the Church" 2 Though
Hall did not give his name, it was at once known to be his,
both from the style and as having been published by the same
Nathaniel Butter who had published Hall's larger treatise of
the preceding year, Episcopacy ly Divine Eight.
The Humlle Remonstrance, in form an appeal to the two
Houses, was in substance a reassertion of the principles of
Hall's former treatise, with just so much of abatement as
was to be accounted for by the absence of Laud's tight super-
vision this time, and by the general change of circumstances.
" Whilst the orthodox part in this whole realm," it said,
" hath (to the praise of their patience) been quietly silent, as
" securely conscious of their own right and innocence, how
1 Kushworth, IV. 93—96 and 135; 1640." A reference to the pamphlet
Parl. Hist II. 637—678 ; Commons by Baillie determines the exact date of
Journals ; Baillie, I. 280. the publication. Writing Jan. 29, 1640-
2 "London: Printed for Nathaniel 41, Baillie speaks of it as published
Butter in Paul's Churchyard at the "this week."
Pyde Bull near St. Austin's Gate :
1640-41.] HALL'S HCMRLK RRMOXSTRAXCB. - 1 .".
many furious aud malignant spirits everywhere have burst
" forth at sclanderous libels, bitter pasquins,railings,pamphlets
" (under which more presses than one have groaned), wherein
" they have endeavoured, through the sides of some misliked
" persons, to wound the sacred government which (by the
" joint confession of all Reformed Divines) derives itself from
" the times of the blessed Apostles, without interruption
" (without the contradiction of any one congregation in the
" Christian world), unto this present age ! " After more pages
of such prefatory matter, Hall proceeds to reply to the attacks
of the other side, more particularly under the two heads of
the Liturgy and Episcopacy. He gives eight pages to the
defence of Liturgies and of the English Liturgy especially,
and twenty-five to the defence of Episcopal Government, the
recent attacks on which, he says, have so " confounded " him
that he can but ejaculate, in the Saviour's words, " Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do." He contrives,
however, to protract the ejaculation through the five-and-
twenty pages. On the whole, the tract is not creditable to
the English Seneca. It shows far too much of that habit
of mere assumption of being in the right, and of reliance
on epithets, which always marks a weak reasoner. " The
King likes it weel," says Baillie, " but all else pities it as
a most poor piece." Laud, who was no such rhetorician as
Hall, would have done the thing far better.
It was on Monday the 8th and Tuesday the 9th of
February that the first great debate on the whole subject
of Church Reform took place in the Commons. The debate
was b-propos of the various petitions that had been presented
on the subject, and more particularly of the two typical peti-
tions, that of the City of London praying for Root-and-
Branch,aud that of the 700 Ministers pray ing for the limitation
of Episcopal power. In the main, the debate was between the
partisans of the more moderate and those of the more vehe-
ment petition, with scarcely a voice in behalf of the High
( 'liurch party. The best speaking was on behalf of Limited
Episcopacy as against Root-and- Branch Reform. Among the
speakers on this side were Lord Digby, Lord Falkland, Sir
216 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Benjamin Kudyard, and Mr. Harbottle Grimstone. Lord
Digby's and Lord Falkland's were the great speeches.
" There is no man within these walls," said Lord Digby,
" more sensible of the heavy grievance of Church-government
" than myself, nor whose affections are keener to the clipping
" of those wings of the Prelates whereby they have mounted
" to such insolencies." Nevertheless, he was against the
prayer of the London petition, which seemed to him as " a
" comet or blazing star raised and kindled out of the stench,
" out of the poisonous exhalation, of a corrupted hierarchy " :
nay, " methought the comet had a terrible tail with it, Sir,
" and pointed to the North." Because wine made some men
drunk, was wine to be absolutely abjured ? " Let us not
" destroy Bishops, but make Bishops such as they were in the
" primitive times. Do their large territories, their large re-
" venues, offend ? Let them be retrenched : the good Bishop
" of Hippo had but a narrow diocese ! Do their courts and
" subordinates offend ? Let them be brought to govern, as in
" primitive times, by assemblies of their clergy ! Doth their
" intermeddling in secular affairs offend ? Exclude them
" from the capacity: it is no more than what reason and
•" all antiquity hath interdicted them." So argued Lord
Digby ; and Lord Falkland spoke in the same strain. The
first part of his speech was one tremendous onslaught on the
Bishops and their adherents. They had been " the destruc-
tion of unity under pretence of uniformity " ; they had " tithed
mint and anise, and left undone the weightier matters of the
law " ; they had been " like the hen in ^Esop," fattened
with barley till it could lay no more eggs ; they had been,
some of them, so " absolutely, directly, and cordially Papists,
" that it is all that fifteen hundred pounds a year can do to
" keep them from confessing it " ; they had been, in respect
of their action upon English liberties, the successors of those
who " in the darkest times, had excommunicated the makers
of Magna Charta " ; they had been the cause of that Scottish
Service- Book the particular author of which had " no doubt
long since wished, with Nero," that he had never known
how to write ; they had been " the almost sole abettors " of
1640-41. J riirijCH-u-.r.'UM DKMATK IN i m: COMMONS. 1M 7
Strafford'8 tyranny, first in Ireland, "where he had com-
" mitted so many mighty and so manifest enormities and
" oppressions as the like have not been committed in any
" government since Verres left Sicily," and next in England,
• hiring that time when "all things were governed by a
Junctillo, and that Junctillo was governed by him." Taking
breath after an outburst of accusations of which this is but
a fraction, Falkland proceeded to show why yet he could not
vote for the Root-and- Branch abolition of Episcopacy. " If
not the first planters of Christianity," he said, " yet the first
spreaders and the first and chief defenders of it had been
bishops " ; nay, in the worst of times, and even recently in
Midland itself, there had been good bishops ; and, though he
did not believe bishops to be jure divino, nay, believed them
" not to be jure divino" yet neither did he believe them, if
wisely regulated, " to be injurid humand." Wise regulation
was everything. Let Bishops be deprived of " their temporal
title, power, and employment," even to their exclusion from
Parliament ; but let not the name and office of Bishop be abo-
lished in England ! So spoke Falkland, and so spoke others ;
Selden, who did not himself come forward as a speaker, assist-
ing the speakers, and supplying them with arguments. Against
such a phalanx of orators, supported by such an encyclopaedia
of learning, the Root-and-Branch speakers seem to have come
off but second-best. Nathaniel Fiennes was the chief speaker
on this side, but the younger Vane and Mr. Bagshaw (member
for Southwark) also stood up with some effect. But, though
comparatively deficient in speaking -power, the Root-and-
Branch party was strong in voting-power ; and at the end of
the debate it was carried by a majority of 35 to refer not
only the Ministers' Petition, but also the London Petition
and all the others, to a Committee of Religion already
appointed by the House, and to which the names of Mr.
Fiennes, the younger Vane, and several other Root-and-
IJranch men, were now added. They were to consider the
Church- Reform question in its entire depth and breadth, and
report to the House.1
i Rtwhworth,IV. 170—188 ; Common* Journals ; Noal, 11.396—404 ; Buillio, I. 302.
218 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
For about a month the Committee sat three times a week.
They were unanimous for measures of Church Eeform which
should completely alter the nature of Episcopacy in England ;
but as to the utter abolition of Episcopacy there was a
division of opinion. The Root-and-Branch members of the
Committee were in a minority. In these circumstances it
was considered most important by the Eoot- and -Branch
leaders that the pressure from without should be increased.
Accordingly, while the Committee sat, there appeared several
pamphlets written expressly in the interest of Root-and-
Branch opinions, and against any preservation of Episcopacy
with whatever limitations. Even before the debate in the
Commons there had appeared (Jan. 29) a tract of this kind,
written, at the request of the Puritan ministers in London,
by Alexander Henderson, and entitled The Unlawfulness
and Danger of Limited Prelacy or Perpetual Presidency in the
Church. As the pens of the Scottish deputation were natu-
rally readiest for the service, and as it was necessary to do
everything to counteract at once the advantage which Limited
Episcopacy views might have gained by the circulation in
print of the recent speeches of Digby and Falkland, and by
the great respect due to Selden, there were now added to this
tract of Henderson's a new edition by Baillie of his Canter-
burians' Self -Conviction, adapted for English readers, and a
further essay by Baillie on the Unlawfulness and Danger of
Limited Episcopacy, intended as a sequel to Henderson's.
There appeared, moreover, " a short treatise, much wanted,"
by Henderson, on The Discipline of the Presbyterian Kirk
of Scotland, a pamphlet by Gillespie on The Grounds of
Preslyterial Government, and one by Blair in reply to Bishop
Hall's Humble Remonstrance}- But, though it was well
to have such auxiliary tracts from the Scottish deputies in
London, it was time that the English Puritan ministers of
the Root-and-Branch party should be making some literary
demonstration for themselves. In fact, such a demonstration
was forthcoming ; and the Scottish tracts were but a stop-
gap till it should be ready. At length it was ready, and on
i Baillie, I. 292 and 303.
1640-41.] Til! ) M/.Vrr.v I'AMl'III 219
or about the 20th of March 1640-41, there were lying in a
bookseller's shop in Pope's Head Alley, and finding their
way thence into the houses of the citizens, copies of a small
quarto of 104 pages, with the following portentous title : " An
Answer to a Book entitulcd ' An Humble Remonstrance ' ; in
which the originall of Liturgy [and] Episcopacy is discussed
and quceres propounded concerning both, the parity of Bishops
and Presbyters in Scripture demonstrated, the occasion of their
unparity in Antiquity discovered, the disparity of the ancient
and our modern Bishops manifested, the antiquity of Ruling
Elders in the Church vindicated, the Prelaticall Church bounded :
Written by SMECTYMNUUS." l
" SMECTYMNUUS ! The goblin makes me start.
I' the name of Itobbi Abraham, what art ? "
So wrote the satirist Cleveland on the appearance of the
pamphlet, expressing the half-comic wonder with which the
name SMECTYMNUUS was everywhere greeted. Yet there
seems to have been no especial mystery made about the
authorship. Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas
Young, Matthew Newcomen,and William Spurstow, had deter-
mined on a joint pamphlet on the Church- question, which
should take the form of a reply to Hall's Humble Remon-
strance. When the pamphlet was finished (and we have
the means of knowing that Young had the largest hand in
it 2), there was naturally some difficulty in finding a name to
put on the title-page, and there occurred to the five friends
the bright idea of combining their initials thus : S. M., E. C.,
T. Y., M. N., U. U. (for W.) S. Hence the goblin that made
Cleveland start. Cleveland, it is pretty clear, knew all about
it ; for a good part of his poem consists of all sorts of jokes on
the birth of such a monstrosity as this quintuple organism of
the wits of five Puritan parsons rolled into one. He compares
it to some case, like that of the Siamese Twins of a later day,
1 " London : Printed for J. Roth well ; tho Commons for licensing books. This
and are to be sold by T. N. at the determines tho date of publication.
Hil.lu in Pope's Head Alloy : 1641." » Baillio, I. 366 ; whore Young w
I find the book registered at Stationers' called "the author of Diet Dominica
Hall as tho property of " Mr. Roth well, and of the Smectymuum for the most
iunr., "and as licensed by Sir Edward |«irt." Baillio's authority is dootrif* Oft
Doenng in tho name of a Committee of this j»oint.
220 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
which had recently been imported from Italy, and exhibited
at fairs : —
" The Italian monster pregnant with his brother,
Nature's diaeresis, half one-another,
He, with his little sidesman Lazarus,
Must both give way unto Smectymnuus.
Next Sturbridge fair is SMEC'S ; for lo ! his side
Into a fivefold Lazar's multiplied :
Under each arm there's tucked a double gizzard ;
Five faces lurk under a single vizard."
Nay, farther : —
"The Sadducees would raise a question
Who must be SMEC at the Resurrection." l
The very oddity of the name, however, helped the circulation
of the pamphlet, and it seems to have at once found its way
to Cambridge (where probably Cleveland saw it) and to Oxford.
It is on the whole a rather heavy and leathery performance,
about five times as long, if we allow for the smaller print, as
Hall's Humble Remonstrance, to which it professes to be an
answer, and indeed involving as well Hall's previous and
larger treatise, Episcopacy by Divine Right. But it is dis-
tinguished not disadvantageously from Hall's later tract by a
closer reasoning of the matters discussed. It is addressed,
like Hall's Eemonstrance, to the Parliament. " Most
" Honourable Lords," it begins, " and ye, the Knights,
" Citizens, and Burgesses of the Honourable House of Com-
" mons, although we doubt not but that book which wak
" lately directed to your Honours, bearing the name of An
" Humble Remonstrance, hath had access unto your presence,
" and is, in the first approaches of it, discovered by your dis-
" cerning spirit to be neither Humble nor a Eemonstrance,
" but a heap of confident and unfounded assertions, so that to
" your Honours a reply may seem superfluous, yet," &c. In
five pages of such preliminary matter there is farther criticism
on Hall's style as " swelled with passionate rhetorications,"
instead of real arguments. " It was a constitution of these
i Cleveland's Works (edit. 1661), pp. 37—41.
1640-41.] THE SUM ••/•)•. \fXUUS PAMPHLET. 221
" admired sons of justice, the Areopagi, that such us pleaded
" before them should plead without prefacing and without
" passion : had your Honours made such a constitution, this
" Remonstrance must have been banished from the face of
" your Assembly." The critics then pass on to Hall's two
heads of the Liturgy and Episcopacy. To the subject of the
Liturgy only nine pages are devoted, the general conclusion
being that Liturgies are at best but helps, and that the exist-
ing Liturgy, if retained at all, would require great revision.
About seventy pages are then given to the question of Epi-
scopacy ; and there is a Postscript, of twenty pages, giving a
summary sketch of the history of Bishops in England from
Augustine downwards, intended to show that they had always
been the causes of disloyalty to the Crown, and of general
turbulence. The argument is pursued in a grave, plodding
manner, with abundance of learned quotations from the
Fathers and of marginal references, and with a close following
of Hall's assertions, one by one, cited in his own words.
Sometimes there is a little briskness ; as when, in answer to
Hall's assertion that by " the joint confession of all Reformed
Divines " Episcopacy was derived from the Apostles, they ex-
claim, " What ! All Reformed Divines ? Was Calvin, Beza,
" Junius, &c., of that mind ? Are the Reformed Churches of
" France, Scotland, Netherlands, of that judgment ? " Not
content with these interrogations, they proceed, in words which
fall on the ear with very unfortunate effect now : " We shall
" show anon that there is no more truth in this assertion than
" if he had said, with Anaxagoras, ' Snow is black,' or, with
" Copernicus, ' The Earth moves and the Heavens stand still.' "
Strange to find that in 1G41 the Copernican theory could still
be cited as a universally admitted example of delusion !—
We may add that the writers of the pamphlet observe
the etiquette of the anonymous, and never directly name
1 1 all as the author of the Remonstrance. The Remon-
strant, they say, had surely conspired with Bishop Hull to
repeat all the assertions made in Ejnscopacy by Divine
Eight ; and, though they could not of course " enter the lists
with a man <>f that K-aniing and fame that Bishop Hall is,"
222 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
yet with his echo, the Remonstrant, they would stand on
no ceremony.
Before the pamphlet of Smectymnuus was out, the Com-
mittee of the Commons had brought in their Eeport (March
9). It propounded for the consideration of the House three
distinct courses of Parliamentary action as necessary to any-
thing like a complete solution of the Church -question. First,
there must be an exclusion of the Bishops, and of the clergy
generally, from all State offices and employments ; secondly,
there must be a limitation of the power of the Bishops in the
Church itself, and an introduction of more of the democratic
element into the system of Church-government ; and, thirdly,
there must be a reduction and application to State purposes
of the great revenues of Deans, Chapters, and other ecclesias-
tical foundations. For a Eeport stopping short of complete
Root-and-Branch, nothing could well be more revolutionary.
Nor did the House merely receive the Keport and keep it in
reserve. At once they proceeded to give effect to its recom-
mendations under at least the first of the three heads sub-
mitted to them. On March 10 they resolved, after debate,
" That the Legislative and Judicial power of Bishops in the
" House of Peers in Parliament is a great hindrance to the
" discharge of their Spiritual functions, prejudicial to the
" Commonwealth, and fit to be taken away by Bill " ; and this
was immediately followed by similar resolutions declaring that
the service of Bishops or any clergymen whatever in Com-
missions of the Peace or in any Civil Courts, and their pre-
sence in the Privy Council, were equally " hindrances to the
" discharge of their Spiritual functions, prejudicial to the
" Commonwealth, and fit to be taken away by Bill." Nay, one
Bill comprehending the general drift of these Resolutions was
brought in, entitled " A Bill to restrain Bishops and others in
Holy Orders from intermeddling with secular affairs." It was
brought in March 30, 1641, and read a second time April 1.
This Bill, accordingly, became for the time the pi&ce de
resistance of the whole controversy. • It by no means in-
cluded all, it will be observed, that the Commons had in
meditation, according even to the Report of their Committee.
1640-41.] BISHOPS EXCLUSION BILL : PETITIONS. 223
It embodied only the Resolutions of the Commons on the
first of the three heads of the Report, leaving the other two
questions open. But one Bill at a time was enough.1
The delay in the progress even of the one Bill caused by
Stratford's trial gave opportunity to those whom the Bill
alarmed for expressing their alarm. Among the petitions
from counties and cities which had been dropping in, some were
decidedly Pro-Episcopal. From an examination of these Pro-
Episcopal petitions (of which there were to be in all, before
the controversy was over, thirteen from English and five from
Welsh counties), Mr. Hallam was disposed to think that the Root-
and-Branch reformers were very far from forming a numerical
majority in the nation. He refers particularly to one petition
to the Lords from Somersetshire, signed by 14,350 freeholders
and other inhabitants, in which, while the petitioners " heartily
wish " for a restoration of the Church to its former purity,"
and for the punishment of " the wittingly and maliciously
guilty" among the bishops and clergy, they remonstrate
against " the destruction of the Government. " Now, it would be
difficult, from such statistics as the petitions of the period fur-
nish, to come to a sound conclusion as to the relative strength of
the Root-and-Branch party and the Moderate-Reform party
throughout the entire nation ; and, as regards certain parts of
Ki inland, Mr. Hallam's conjecture may be right. That he has
underrated, however, the strength of the Root-and-Branch
party as a whole is rendered probable by various evidences.
Among them may be cited that furnished by a comparison
of two conflicting petitions from the single county of Chester
(April 2). While what may be called the Pro-Episcopal
petition purports to be signed by four noblemen, fourscore
and odd knights-baronets, knights, and esquires, seventy
divines, over 300 gentlemen, and over 6,000 freeholders and
other inhabitants, the Anti-Kpiscopal petition from the same
county purports to be signed almost exactly two to one, —
i.e. by eight noblemen, 199 knights- baronets, knights, and
« -squires, 140 divines, 757 gentlemen, and over 12,000 free-
holders and other inhabitants.2 I call this latter petition
1 Commons Journals of date* cited ; * Printed copied of Itoth petition* in
Hiwhworth, IV. 206 7 : Huilli*-. I. 307-8. 8. I', o. m,.K r .l.,to April li, ItJII.
224 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Anti-Episcopal because of its strong expressions against " the
lordly prelates," their " white rochets," &c. ; but it is possible
that, though it thus looks in the main Koot-and-Branch, many
of those who signed it did not contemplate an absolute aboli-
tion either of Bishops or of the Liturgy.
It was at this moment that Bishop Williams came cha-
racteristically to the front. The Lords, though they had,
of course, discussed matters of religion as well as the Com-
mons, had yet abstained, in the main, from any investigation
of the Church-problem for themselves, and waited till the
solution of the problem by the Commons should come up for
their criticism. But, now that the nature of the solution by
the Commons was pretty well known, it was natural that
the Lords should begin to bestir themselves. Might it not
be well that, before the Bill of the Commons should reach
the Upper House, that House should have shaped out some
conclusions of its own with which to receive and compare
the Bill ? Availing himself of these feelings, or perhaps
exciting them, Williams had procured the appointment by
the Upper House, on the 1st of March, or about a month
before the actual introduction of the Bishops Exclusion Bill
into the Commons, of a Committee of ten Bishops, and about
thirty lay peers, with himself as chairman, to consider and
report to the House on the means of settling the peace of the
Church. This Committee was empowered to call before it
divines and doctors of all shades of opinion, and to examine
them and confer with them on all matters, as well of
doctrine as of discipline. It is curious to observe the
different judgments on this scheme of Williams, pronounced
from opposite quarters. To Laud in his prison it seemed
simply detestable ; to Baillie and his party, on the other hand,
it seemed " a trick of the Bishops." There were others, how-
ever, such as the historian Fuller, who believed that good
might come from the conferences of the Committee if they
were rightly managed. And Williams spared no pains to
make them successful. Day after day, for six days at least,
there met at his house, the Deanery of Westminster, in the
famous room known as the Jerusalem Chamber, about as
1840-41.] WILUAMS'S CONFERENCES. 225
eclectic a gathering of divines as could be got together. They
met there, not so much to be merely examined as witnesses
by the Bishop and his fellow committee-men of the Lords, as
tosit alongwith them deliberating confidentially,and partaking
all the while of " such bountiful cheer " as Williams knew how
to bestow. In addition to Williams himself, Bishop Hall, and
Bishop Morton of Durham, there were present the following,
among others : — Usher ; Dr. Samuel Ward, Master of Sidney-
Sussex College, Cambridge; Dr. John Prideaux, Dean of
Exeter College, Oxford, and Vice-chancellor of the University ;
Dr. William Twisse, Rector of Newbury, Berks ; Dr. Kobert
Sanderson, chaplain to the King ; Dr. Daniel Featley, Provost
of Chelsea College and Rector of Lambeth ; Dr. Ralph
Brownrigg, Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge ; Dr. Richard
Holdsworth, Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge ; Dr.
John Hacket, Rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and Pre-
bendary of St. Paul's ; Mr. Thomas Hill, Rector of Tichnmrsh,
Northamptonshire ; Dr. Cornelius Burges of Watford, and
another Puritan minister of note, Mr. John White of Dor-
chester, called " Patriarch White " ; nay, actually, at least
three of the Sinectymnuans — Marshall, Calamy, and Young.
What a " happy family " the assembly must have been may
be imagined from the fact that the three Smectymnuans, while
seated opposite Bishop Hall, may have had proof-sheets of
their pamphlet against Hall, or completed copies of it (for it
came out that very week), in their pockets. On the whole,
the conferences led to little. Under the head of " Innovations
in Doctrine " it was agreed that during Laud's supremacy
the Church had backslidden into Popish tenets and become
clouded with Arminianism ; under the head of " Innovations in
Discipline " it was agreed that ceremonies had been needlessly
iniiltipliiMl, and that there had been a mischievous and in-
quisitorial harshness on the part of bishops ; respecting the
Liturgy, some revision at least was contended for by most ;
and, as regarded the great matter of the future reorganization
of the Church with a view to adapt Episcopacy to the spirit
of the age, — why, on that subject Bishop Williams himself
was preparing a " draft," which he hoped would satisfy the
VOL. li Q
226 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
brethren ! Of one thing people might be sure. Whatever
might be the nature of Williams's " draft," and however
far it might go in the direction of a Broad Church, it would
not exclude Bishops from Parliament and from State offices.
Of all men living Williams was the least likely to hear of
such a proposition with patience. Had he not himself sat
on the woolsack, and was it not his ambition even now to re-
enter the world of politics, and show what a head for State
affairs might be covered by a mitre ? x
Before Williams could bring the result of his Conferences
to bear, or have his draft of Church Eeform ready, the
dreaded Bill from the Commons came up to the Lords. It
passed the Commons on the 1st of May, Hyde opposing it on
the third reading, but his friend Falkland supporting it with
a vehemence which astonished Hyde. It was the moment of
the very crisis of Stafford's fate. Hence, though the Bill
was introduced into the Lords on May 1, it was not till the
14th of May, or two days after Stafford's death, that the
Lords began the discussion of it on the second reading. For
three weeks, in the House or in Committee, the discussion was
continued. Both Hall and Williams spoke against the Bill.
Hall pronounced it " the strangest bill he had ever heard
since he sat under that roof," admitted that perhaps the
power of bishops in judicatures might be conveniently
abridged, but defended their presence in Parliament. Wil-
liams, though he conceded that the exclusion of churchmen
from the Council- table and Commissions of the Peace might
be carried " without the regret of any wise ecclesiastical
persons," was equally emphatic on the main point. Had
not Calvin and Beza, he asked, intermeddled with State
affairs, " carrying all the Council of the State of Geneva
under their gowns ? " Nay, — and here he made a really
clever homethrust, — " you have all heard (and, I know, much
" good by his former writings) of a learned man, called Mr.
" Henderson, and most of your lordships understand better
" than I what employment he hath at this time in this
" kingdom." Among the lay peers the most strenuous oppo-
1 Lords' Journals ; Fuller's Church History, XI. 46 ; Baillie, I, 308—9,
1640-41.] BISHOPS EXCLUSION BILL: UNIVERSITY PETITIONS. 227
nent of the Bill was the Earl of Kingston, while the chief
speaker for it was Saye and Sela On the minor enactments
of the Bill, excluding Bishops from the Privy Council, from
Commissions of the Peace, &c., the Lords, with but two
dissentient voices, were willing to go with the Commons ;
but on the main provision, excluding the Bishops from Par-
liament, they stood unexpectedly firm. A conference ensued
between them and the Commons ; and the Commons tried to
shake their firmness by offering them (June 4) formal Reasons
for the removal of Bishops from Parliamentary power. All
in vain. Williams prepared replies to these Keasons of the
Commons, which were afterwards printed ; and the Lords
showed their disregard for them by their final vote on the
third reading. That vote occurred June 8, when the Bishops
Exclusion Bill was rejected in gross by the Lords, in a pretty
full House, by a clear majority of sixteen, apart from the
votes of the Bishops themselves.1
There were other evidences, besides this rejection of the
Bishops Exclusion Bill by the Lords, that the wain of Church
Reform had reached a point where it would be in dangerof stick-
ing fast unless there were many shoulders to the wheels. Not
only on the question of the civil power of Bishops was there
a gathering of conservative resistance. There was the same
resistance on those other two questions on which the Com-
mons had reserved legislative action : the question of Deans
and Chapters, or the reduction of Cathedral Establishments ;
and the question of the best future model for the government
of the Church so as to limit Prelacy. On the 12th of May,
for example (the very day of Stafford's execution), there had
been presented to the Commons, with quite unusual solem-
nity, two most important petitions from the Universities.
The petition from the University of Oxford, adopted "in
celebri conwntu Doctorum et Magistrorum, omnibus et singulis
assentientibus," deprecated any attack on Cathedral Estab-
lishments, vindicating them as ancient and approved founda-
tions, as " a motive and encouragement " to students, especially
1 I' irl. HiMt. II. 774—776, and 792— 281—2 ; and Fuller's Church Hi«t. (od.
811 ; Lords' Journal* ; Ruahworth, IV. 1842) III. 423.
228 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
in divinity, and as affording not only the fittest means of
reward for " some deep and eminent scholars," but also
" a competent portion, in an ingenious way, to many younger
brothers of good parentage who devote themselves to the
ministry of the Gospel." But not only did the petition
vindicate Cathedral Establishments : it ventured on a com-
prehensive reference to the question of Church Government,
begging leave for the petitioners " in all humility to desire
" the continuance of that form of government which is now
" established here, and hath been preserved in some of the
" Eastern and Western Churches, in a continued succession
" of Bishops, down from the very Apostles to the present
" time." "While the Oxford petition was thus Pro-Episcopal,
as well as in favour of Deans and Chapters, the petition from
Cambridge confined itself to the question of Deans and
Chapters, and said nothing on the wider question, except by
implication. But there were not only the petitions them-
selves. By the leave of the House, Dr. Hacket was heard in
favour of the views of the petitioners as regarded the pre-
servation of Deaneries, Canonries, Prebends, &c., while Dr.
Cornelius Burges was heard as spokesman for the Puritan
ministers on the other side. Dr. Hacket's speech was thought
a masterpiece. " He insisted," says Fuller, " on the advance-
" ment of learning as the proper use and convenience of
" cathedrals, each of them being a small academy for the
" champions of Christ's cause against the adversary by their
" learned pens. Here he proffered to prove, by a catalogue
" of their names and works which he could produce, that
" most of the excellent labours in this kind, excepting some
" few, have proceeded from persons preferred in the Cathe-
" drals or the Universities. Now, what a disheartening it
" would be to young students if such promotions were
" taken away ! " l
The wide sympathy and applause with which Hacket's
speech was received by many in Parliament, as well as out of
doors, was a sign of such a joining of forces in the ranks of the
High Church Party and the Middle Party as could hardly
i Fuller, III. 418—423 ; and Rushworth, IV. 270—273, and 280—282,
1640-41.] USHEK'S INTERPOSITION. 229
have been anticipated Usher himself was coming forward
to the rescue from Root-and-Braiich. From time to time
since the opening of the Parliament this learned Primate's
views had been cited and appealed to on different sides. It
was rumoured that, with the King's approval, he had been
drawing up plans for an ecclesiastical conciliation ; and, on
one occasion (Feb. 9), he had complained to the Commons
of the unauthorized publication, in his name, of some such
plan. But, now that all men's minds were in confusion,
and that the real question might be not between a better or
a worse form of Episcopacy, but between Episcopacy in any
form and its abolition, it was eagerly desired by all the
defenders of Episcopacy that Usher should openly help them.
Hall, overburdened with the work, was especially anxious
for the co-operation of the popular Low-Church Archbishop.
" That which fell from me yesterday suddenly and transcur-
" sively," we find him writing to Usher, " hath since taken
" up my after-midnight thoughts, and I must crave leave
" what then I moved to importune, — that your Grace would
" be pleased to bestow one sheet of paper upon these distracted
" times, on the subject of Episcopacy, showing the Apostol-
" ical original of it, and the grounds of it from Scripture and
" the immediately succeeding antiquity. Every line of it,
" coming from your Grace's hand, would be super rotas SIMS, —
" as Solomon's expression is, very apples of gold with pictures
" of silver, and more worth than volumes to us." The good
Archbishop was persuaded ; and about the 21st of May there
had appeared, in a shop in Fleet Street, exactly such a sheet
of matter as Hall had desired, under this title, " The Judgment
of Doctor Rainoldes touching tlie originall of Episcopacy, more
largely confirmed out of Antiquity, by James, Arclihishop of
Armagh" l But this was not all. It was quite true that
Usher had been preparing a practical scheme for the settle-
ment of the Church of England on the basis of a retained
but greatly modified Episcopacy. The tract of the publica-
» "London: printed by O. M. for the publication from the Register
TliMm:ia Downe*, and are to be sold by in Stationers' Hall, where it is entered
\V,lli;nn Lee at the Turke's Head in May 21. See also Ellington's Life of
Fleet Street." I ascertain the date of Usher, prefixed to his " Works."
230 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
tion of which he had complained is believed to have been an
imperfect copy of this scheme, which had been purloined from
his desk ; but the perfect copy, long afterwards published from
his manuscript, under the title of The Reduction of Episcopacy
unto the form of Synodical Government received in the Ancient
Church, appears to have been in private circulation in May
and June 1641, and to have affected the discussions then
going on in the Commons. In this project of Usher's, in the
drawing up of which Dr. Holdsworth of Cambridge, and per-
haps some others, had a part, the management of the
Church was to be by graduated courts as follows : — (1)
A Weekly Parochial Court in every parish, consisting of the
Incumbent and Churchwardens. (2) Monthly Courts in dis-
tricts or subdivisions of dioceses, corresponding to the Rural
Deaneries, — every such court to consist of the assembled
Eectors or other Incumbents of the parishes of the district,
presided over by a Suffragan for the district, corresponding to
the ancient Chorepiscopus. (3) Diocesan Synods, once or
twice a year, consisting of the Suffragans of districts and
representatives of the parish clergy, and presided over by the
Bishop, or by one of the district Suffragans deputed by him.
(4) Provincial Synods, every third year, consisting of the
Bishops, the Suffragans, and elected parish ministers from
each of the two ecclesiastical Provinces of England, under
the presidency of the Archbishop of the Province, or of a
Bishop deputed by him ; and with power to the two Provin-
cial Synods, if meeting at the same time as Parliament, to
coalesce into a General Assembly or National Council for
ultimate regulation of Church affairs.1
All these incidents, concurring about the end of May and
the beginning of June 1641, produced a sense of distressing
imbroglio, and almost of dead-lock. It would have been of
dead-lock entirely but for the natural rousing of the pugnacity
of the Commons and of their adherents against such an
1 This Reduction of Episcopacy, by hope, after the Restoration. (See Bax-
Usher, was first printed from the ori- ter's Life, ed. 1696, pp. 238, et seq.).
ginal MS. in 1658 by Dr. N. Bernard, See also Elrington's Life of Usher in
and will be found in Usher's Works by Usher's Works, I. 208—9 ; and Whit-
Elrington, Vol. XII. It was brought locke's Memorials, June 1641.
forward again publicly, and with some
1640-41.] A ROOT-AND-BRANCH DILI* 231
accumulation of obstacles. In the Commons the roused
feeling took shape in two forms : — (1) Condemnation of Cathe-
dral Establishments. Although Racket's defence of Cathedral
Establishments had been so masterly that there was an
impression, says Fuller, that, if the vote had been taken when
it was made, Cathedral Establishments would have had a
majority of sixty in their favour, yet no sooner was the
Bishops Exclusion Bill thrown out by the Lords than the
Commons forgot the speech. On the 15th of June, they
resolved " That all Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons,
" Prebendaries, Chanters, Canons, and Petty Canons, and their
" officers, shall be utterly abolished and taken away out of
" the Church," and " That all the lands taken by this Bill
" from Deans and Chapters shall be employed to the advance-
" ment of learning and piety, provision being had and made
" that His Majesty be not a loser in his rents, first-fruits,
" and other duties, and that a competent maintenance shall
" be made to the several persons concerned, if such persons
" appear not peccant and delinquents to this House." ]
(2) A Root-and- Branch Bill. The story of this Bill is one of
the most curious in the annals of the Long Parliament, and it
brings Cromwell before us in a relation to the proceedings of
the Commons at this time which has escaped notice. On the
27th of May, — that is, before the rejection of the Bishops
Exclusion Bill by the Lords, but when it was pretty well
known that they would reject it, — Sir Edward Deering was
in his place in the Commons as usual He had by this
time earned his name, "the Silver Trumpet," by his fine
voice and his fondness for using it ; and he had been con-
spicuous as one of the first accusers of Laud, and generally
as one of the most eager for Church-Reform, short of absolute
Root -and -Branch. As he was in his place, thinking of
nothing in particular, Sir Arthur Haselrig came up to him
with a draft of a very short bill, which Haselrig had
that moment received from Sir Henry Vane and Mr. Oliver
Cromwell " He told me," says Deering, " he was resolved
that it should go in, but was earnestly urgent that I would
i Riwh worth, IV. 285—290.
232 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
present it." Deering took the bill from Haselrig, with a
natural desire to see what it was before complying with the
request. " The bill," he says, " did not stay in my hand so
" long as to make a hasty perusal. Whilst I was overviewing
" it, Sir Edward Ayscough delivered a petition out of Lin-
" colnshire, which was seconded by Mr. Strode in such a
" sort as that I had a fair invitement to issue forth the Bill
" then in my hand. Thereupon I stood up." He stood
up, in fact, like an innocent, and became the mouthpiece
of Vane, Cromwell, and Haselrig. " For the utter abolishing
" and taking away of all Archbishops, Bishops, their Chan-
" cellors and Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters,
" Archdeacons, Prebendaries, Chanters, Canons, and all other
" their under- officers " : such was the title of the Bill. It
was, in short, a Eoot-and -Branch Bill, with which the extreme
spirits in the House, hitherto detained in the background,
had resolved now to make an experiment on their own
account. Even while proposing the Bill, Deering seems to
have trembled. " I am now the instrument," he said, " to
" present unto you a very short, but a very sharp, bill, such
" as these times and these sad necessities have brought forth.
" It speaks a free language and makes a bold request. I give
" it you as I take physic, not for delight, but for a cure."
Nay, though he now presented the Bill, and would vote for
it, yet, " should his former hopes of a full reformation revive,"
he would " divide his sense upon this bill and yield his shoul-
ders to underprop the primitive, lawful, and just Episco-
pacy." It mattered little to Vane, Cromwell, Haselrig, and
the rest of the Boot-and-Branch men, what Deering said
about the Bill. Their purpose was sufficiently answered by
its introduction, and by the vote which followed. That same
day (May 27) the Bill was not only read the first time, but
also passed the second reading by a majority of 1 3 9 Ayes to
108 Noes. This result, which may have surprised the Boot-
and-Branch men themselves, was probably intended by some
of the majority only as a menace to the Lords should they
reject the Bishops Exclusion Bill.1
i Commons' Journals, May 27, 1641 ; Parl. Hist. II. 814, 815 ; and Deering's
Speeches, published by himself.
1640-41.] A ROOT-AND-BRANCH BILL. 233
For many days the Root-and-Branch Bill was the subject
of discussions in Committee and references to the House.
The Committee, of which Mr. Hyde was Chairman, sat
usually from nine in the morning till four in the afternoon,
then " reporting their several votes of that day to the House."
According to Clarendon, this piecemeal mode of procedure
was favourable to the Root-and-Branch party, for they
always sat on to the end to make a House, whereas those
who abhorred the Bill went off at dinner-time ; which
made Falkland say that "they who hated bishops hated
them worse than the devil, and they who loved them
did not love them so well as their dinner." Neverthe-
less, it was in the power of Hyde, as Chairman of the
Committee, to do much to impede the Bill, and he takes
credit for having used this power to the uttermost. The
most important debates were on the llth and 12th of June,
and again on the 21st. On the 1 1th the preamble of the Bill
was agreed upon as follows : " Whereas the government of
" the Church of England by Archbishops, Bishops, their
" Chancellors and Commissaries, Deans, Archdeacons, and
" other ecclesiastical officers, hath been found, by long expe-
" rience, to be a great impediment to the perfect reformation
" and growth of religion, and very prejudicial to the civil
" state and government of this kingdom." Resuming the
debate at this point the next day, the Committee and the
House proceeded to the great question whether the govern-
ment thus condemned by them should be utterly abolished.
Sir Henry Vane led the debate that day on the affirmative
side in a speech which was immediately published ; and the
poet Waller spoke on the other side. The abolition clause
was also voted ; but on one point or another the discussion
was continued in Committee and in the House till June 21,
when it had reached a degree of complexity which will be
best indicated by an account of the speech then made in
Committee by the original mover of the Bill, Sir Edward
Deering. " You have here a Bill," he began, " but such an
" one as is like to be short-lived, and not to grow into a
" perfect Act, unless you please to add thereunto some very
234 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" important, very significant, provisoes, — such wherein we
" may have, or whereby we may be assured in another Bill
" to have, a future government in the room of this that goes
" out." When Sir Edward had got so far, there was a little
interruption, and there was tabled an addition to the Bill,
longer than the Bill itself, explaining the " provisoes " by
which the Koot-and-Branch party intended to supplement
the Bill. They were in substance that " a proportional num-
ber of clergy and laity " should be appointed as Commis-
sioners in every diocese, to exercise all ecclesiastical juris-
diction until a future government should be resolved on.
With such an " interregnum of Commissioners " Sir Edward,
who had probably repented by this time the part he had
been made to play in the original introduction of the Bill,
professed himself quite unsatisfied. This Bill, he said, took
away the existing Episcopacy : the vote of the Commons
went as far as that, and he went with it. But there was
another Episcopacy, which he, for one, would like to see
substituted for that which they had voted to abolish. It was
the primitive genuine Episcopacy, which had existed in the
Church so close to the time of the Apostles that it might
claim, if not Apostolic institution, at least Apostolic per-
mission. Here Deering gave a sketch of the " primitive Epis-
copacy," with quotations from Ignatius and other Fathers.
To put his views in a practical form with reference to
England, he would recommend, he said, first, a redivision of
the country into dioceses smaller than the existing ones, and,
as near as might be, coincident with the shires ; secondly, the
appointment by Parliament in each of these districts or
shires of a permanent body of some twelve or more grave
divines, who should act as an ecclesiastical council " in the
nature of an old constant primitive Presbytery " ; and,
thirdly, the appointment over this Presbytery of one to
direct and guide them, who might be called " Bishop," or (if
that name disturbed people) President, Overseer, Moderator,
Superintendent, Euling Presbyter, or anything else. Deering
was eager that some such new constitution should pass along
with the Bill abolishing the existing Episcopacy, so that there
1640-41.] WILLIAMS'S DRAFT BILL 235
might be 110 period of anarchy. " In strict and plain English,"
he said finally, " I am for abolishing of our present Episco-
" pacy, both dioceses and diocesans, as now they are. But I
" am withal, at the same time, for the restoration of the pure
" primitive Episcopal Presidency. . . . Down, then, with our
" Prelatical Hierarchy, or Hierarchical Prelacy, such as now
" we have ! . . . This do, but ed lege, on this condition, that
" with the same hand, in the same Bill, we do gently raise
" again, even from under the ruins of that Babel, such an
" Episcopacy, such a Presidency, as is venerable in its an-
" tiquity and purity, and most behoveful for the peace of
" our Christendom." It is to be understood that at this
point Deering and the real Root-and-Branch men parted
company.1
Whatever interest there might be in having Bishop
Williams's long-promised draft of a new Church-organization
in hand, in order to compare it with the Root-and-Branch
Bill of the Commons, or with Usher's " Reduction of Episco-
pacy," was very soon gratified. Williams's scheme for
" regulating of Bishops and their Jurisdiction " was submitted
to the Lords on the 1st of July. It certainly proposed great
limitations of the Episcopal power. Bishops were to remain
in Parliament ; but no Bishop (save the Bishop of Lincoln,
as Dean of Westminster, i.e. Williams himself) was to be
on the Commission of the Peace. Every Bishop, in addition
to his Dean and Chapter, was to have twelve assessors in his
diocese for jurisdiction and ordination, four to be appointed
by the King, four by the Lords, and four by the Commons.
In cases of vacant bishoprics, these assessors, together with
the Dean and Chapter, were to nominate three clergymen
for the see, from whom the Crown was to select one. All
ecclesiastical canons and constitutions were to be drawn up
by a committee of sixteen learned persons, of whom the King
was to appoint six, the Lords five, and the Commons five.
These and some other provisions formed Williams's long-
expected Draft. Whatever might have been thought of it
s1 .F.-urnala of datee cited ; Ruahworth, IV. 293—6 ; Clarendon, 95,
Purl. Hist. II. 822 — 8, and 838 — 40; 96; and Dee ring'u Speech.
236 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
earlier, it was now too late. "The Bill," says Fuller, " was read
but once in the Lords, and no great matter made thereof." l
And no wonder, if we consider the state of confusion, of
mutual pressure and conflict, at which, by the time the Bill
had been brought forward (July 1641), parties had arrived.
As clearly as I can represent this state, there were now four
distinguishable parties, instead of the three described at the
outset. (1) There was the High Church Party, headed by
the King, and represented by Hall, most of the other Bishops,
the Oxford Divines, &c., anxious for conserving as much of
the existing Episcopacy and its appurtenances as possible. (2)
There was the Higher Middle Party, represented by Williams,
anxious for the retention of Bishops in Parliament, the
preservation of Cathedral Establishments, and the like, but
ready for a reorganization of the Episcopal government of the
Church after Williams's scheme, or something tantamount.
(3) There was the Lower Middle Party, represented by the
majority of Church- Kef or mers in the Commons, including
even Falkland and Selden, resolute for the ejection of Bishops
from Parliament and all civil offices, and also for the reduction
of Cathedral Establishments, but satisfied with the retention
of Episcopacy if it were restored to some imaginary resem-
blance to primitive Episcopacy, like that upon which Usher
had set his heart. (4) As before, there was the real Koot-
and-Branch Party, represented by the Vanes, Cromwells, and
Haselrigs in the Commons, and by Saye and Sele, Brooke,
and others in the Lords, desiring the entire abolition of.
Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Deans and Chapters, Arch-
deacons, Prebendaries, Canons, and all ecclesiastical ranks
above that of the parish-clergy, and, so far as they were
agreed as to the system that should be substituted for such
a hierarchy, seeing nothing so likely as the Scottish Presby-
terian system, or some modification thereof.
i Lords' Journals, July 1, 1641 ; Fuller's Church Hist. (edit. 1842), III. 426.
CHAPTER IV.
THREE ANTI-EPISCOPAL PAMPHLETS OF MILTON.
IT was into the midst of the confusion of Parliamentary
parties on the Church-question that there was thrown a
pamphlet, of 90 small quarto pages, bearing this title : " Of
Reformation touching Church Discipline in England and the
Causes that hitherto have hindered it : Two Books, ivritten to
a Friend : printed for Thomas Undcrhill, 1641." Many were
the pamphlets then coming out, on all sides of the con-
troversy, by known and unknown authors ; among which, as
not unlikely to attract a good share of attention, we may note
a new one, of thorough Root -and -Branch opinions, by the
indefatigable Prynne.1 But the pamphlet of which we have
given the title would have been distinguished from all the
rest by any one that had happened to look into it. There
was no author's name to it, but we know it now as Milton's.
We have seen what were the effects upon Milton's mind,
in his house in Aldersgate Street, of the sudden prospect of a
new era of liberty, and especially of ecclesiastical liberty, for
England. He had been watching, with unusual interest, the
successive steps of the Church-question in Parliament, from
the presentation in December 1640 of that Root-and-Branch
petition of the Londoners which he himself may have signed,
on to that crisis of May — July 1641 at which we have now
arrived. He had been watching those steps in the spirit of a
» "The Antipathy of the English Registered at
Lordly Prelacy both to Royal Monarchy 1641.
and Civil Unity: By Mr. Wm. I'r
Stationers' Hall, July 5,
238 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
man who was himself of Koot-and-Branch opinions to the very
uttermost bounds known. In the same spirit he had been
watching the literature of the question. He had been reading,
with all the attention of an adverse critic, Hall's pamphlets,
Usher's pamphlets and those that bore Usher's name, the
published speeches of Digby and Falkland, and Racket's
famous defence of Cathedral Establishments. Nor, from his
antecedents, was he one whose sympathies with the Koot-
and-Branch party were likely to remain unknown. In any
meeting of the Boot-and- Branch leaders in London where
they might chance to be reckoning up their available
adherents, the name of Mr. John Milton was pretty sure to
be mentioned. The matter is not left to conjecture. The
chief of the Smectymnuans, as we have seen, was Thomas
Young, Vicar of Stowmarket in Suffolk, who, some twenty
years before, had been Milton's first domestic preceptor. It
must have been by some presentiment that, in relating the
story of Milton's boyhood and youth, we were attracted so
particularly by the figure of this long -forgotten Scottish
immigrant into England. "We dug him, it may be remem-
bered, out of his birth-place of Luncarty in Perthshire ; we
followed him to the University of St. Andrews ; we traced
him thence to London, to be employed by Puritan ministers
as their occasional assistant, and by the scrivener of Bread
Street as a tutor for his son ; and we quoted, finally, Milton's
expressions of strong regard for him in poems and letters
after he and Young had been separated. Only vaguely did we
know then that pupil and tutor were again to come together,
in the pupil's manhood, so near to the centre of the politics
of England. But such is the fact. Not only is there proof
that Young was the chief of the Smectymnuans ; there is
also something like proof, under Milton's own hand, presently
to be cited, that Milton himself had a hand in the Smec-
tymnuus Pamphlet. He contributed, as I calculate, rough
notes or material for about twenty of its pages.
Co-operation, however, except incidentally, in pamphlets
with others was not much in Milton's way. Accordingly,
when the Smectymnuus pamphlet appeared (March 1640-1)
1641.] MILTON'S FIRST PAMPHLET. 239
lie was engaged on a pamphlet of his own, Smectymnuan in
its purport, but Miltonic to the brim in its matter and style.
He was not a fast writer, and there was every reason why
into this, his first, pamphlet he should throw as much of
himself as he could. Moreover, he had so chosen his subject
that, while the pamphlet should be a trumpet-blast on the
current questions, it should yet have the form of an original
historical essay. His thesis was that the European Reforma-"^
tion begun by Luther had been arrested in England at a point V
far less advanced than that which it had reached in other C
countries, and that, in consequence, England had ever since ]
been suffering and struggling, and incapacitated, as by a load '
of nightmare only half thrown off, for the full and free exercise
of her splendid spirit. In treating this thesis it was his
purpose to point out the causes of such a national stopping-
short in reformation, as they had operated in the time of
Henry VIII. and had continued to operate ever since. For
the readings and generalizings necessary for such an essay
some little time was required. Accordingly, as exactly as I
can calculate, it was not till very late in May, or, more prob-
ably, early in June, that the pamphlet appeared.1 When it
did appear, its title, as quoted above, announced its nature.
Who the " Friend " is to whom the two Books composing the
pamphlet were addressed, remains unknown. The epistolary
form may have been but an author's device ; and the Friend,
whoever he was, need not have seen the remarks addressed to
him till they were in print.
The bookseller, Thomas Underbill, who published Milton's
pamphlet, was the publisher also of Vane's contemporary
Root-and-Branch Speech. His shop was in Wood Street,
Cheapside, at the sign of the Bible. Suppose that, in June
1 Thomoson, the contemporary col- Milton's earliest pamphlets not having
lector of the King's Pamphlets in the t>een registered at all by the publishers,
liritish Museum, who has left the exact But Milton distinctly speaks of this
dates of so many of the pamphlets in- pamphlet as h\njirgt (l>ef. Sec. pro Pojp.
scribed upon them, has not dated the . I /<///. ) ; which, as we shall see, implies
copies of Milton's earliest pamphlets. that it cannot have appeared later than
The Stationers' Hall Registers, an exa- June ; and, as there is allusion in the
mination of which has happily furnished pamphlet itself to the petitions of the
mo with the dates of very many pom- universities in favour of Deans and
l>lili-t« and other publications cited in Chapters, this determines that the pam-
this History, are of no help here, — phlot appeared after May lL'.
240 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
1641, you had purchased at his shop a copy of Milton's
Pamphlet, and, having taken it home with you, had begun to
read it. The very opening, if you had been accustomed to the
pamphlets of the day, would have astonished you. Here
it is : —
" SIB,
Amidst those deep and retired thoughts which with every
man Christianly instructed ought to be most frequent — of God, and
of his miraculous ways and works amongst men, and of our religion
and worship to be performed to him — after the story of our Saviour
Christ, suffering to the lowest bent of weakness in the flesh, and
presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory in the spirit,
which drew up his body also till we in both be united to him in
the revelation of his Kingdom, I do not know of anything more
worthy to take up the whole passion of pity on the one side, and
joy on the other, than to consider, first, the foul and sudden cor-
ruption, and then, after many a tedious age, the long-deferred, but
much more wonderful and nappy, Reformation of the Church in
these latter days. Sad it is to think how that doctrine of the
Gospel, planted by teachers divinely inspired, and by them win-
nowed and sifted from the chaff of overdated ceremonies, and
refined to such a spiritual height and temper of purity and know-
ledge of the Creator that the body, with all the circumstances of
time and place, were purified by the affections of the regenerate
soul, and nothing left impure but sin — faith needing not the weak
and fallible offices of the senses to be either the ushers or inter-
preters of heavenly mysteries, save where our Lord himself in his
Sacraments ordained — that such a doctrine should, through the
grossness and blindness of her professors, and the fraud of deceiv-
able traditions, drag so downwards as to backslide one way into
the Jewish beggary of old cast rudiments, and stumble forward
another way into the new -vomited Paganism of sensual idolatry,
attributing purity or impurity to things indifferent. That they
might bring the inward acts of the spirit to the outward and custom-
ary eye-service of the body, as if they would make God earthly
and fleshly because they could not make themselves heavenly and
spiritual, they began to draw down all the divine intercourse
betwixt God and the soul, yea the very shape of God himself, into
an exterior and bodily form. Urgently pretending a necessity and
obligement of joining the body in a formal reverence and worship
circumscribed, they hallowed it, they fumed it, they sprinkled it,
1641.] MILTON'S FIRST PAMPHI.M. 241
they decked it, — not in robes of pure innocency, but of pure linen,
with other deformed and fantastic dresses in palls and mitres, gold
and gewgaws, fetched from Aaron's old wardrobe, or the Flamen's
vestry. Then was the priest set to con his motions and his postures,
his liturgies and his lurries, till the soul, by the means of over-
bodying herself, given up to fleshly delights, bated her wing apace
downward, and, finding the ease she had from her visible and
sensuous colleague, the body, in performance of religious duties,
her pinions now broken and flagging, shifted off from herself the
labour of high-soaring any more, forgot her heavenly flight, and
left the dull and droiling carcase to plod on in the old road and
drudging trade of outward conformity."
Having read so far (and long sentences were not in those
days the horror to readers that they have since become), you
would not perhaps have made up your mind as to the merits
of the author all in all, but you would have been likely to go
on. How was it, the author asked, that, although England,
blessed with a Wycliffe, had been the first country in Europe
to awake out of the long night of Romish Medievalism, and
although, after a relapse, she had again shared the general
awakening of Luther's movement, yet she had lagged behind
all other Protestant Churches in the race ? He would pass
over " God's part " in the matter, or the mysterious purposes
for which Providence might have arranged it so ; and he would
pass over also what amount of influence might have been owing
to the foreign agency of Home, still keeping tenacious hold
of the English nation and fingering continually in her affairs.
Passing over these, he will consider, he says, those causes of
the phenomenon of an arrested Reformation which belonged
to the genius and history of the English among themselves.
Through several pages, accordingly, there is a rapid view of
the course of the English Church during the reigns of Henry
VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, as determined by the
personal characters of those sovereigns and of the ecclesiastics
whom they chiefly trusted. One is struck here by the perfect
freedom, amounting to irreverence, with which the writer
speaks of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and others, remembered
as the worthies and martyrs of their time; and there is a pass-
age in which the writer refers to this, avows his principle
VOL. II i:
242 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
in such matters, and announces that, if people expect from
him anything of that fulsome hero-worship which will not
see faults in men of the past because they have been reputedly
or even really good and great, they will find themselves
mistaken. Having concluded his summary of English
History from the reign of Henry VIII. to the end of that of
Elizabeth, he next proceeds to the more extensive portion of
his subject : to wit, the investigation of the causes which, in
the generation then living, or from the accession of James,
had hindered the progress of Keformation. These causes,
he says, resolved themselves chiefly into the existence and
influence in the community of three classes of persons. He
will call them, respectively, the Antiquitarians (so named by
him to distinguish them from the " Antiquaries," whose
labours he thought useful and laudable), the Libertines, and
the Politicians.
First of the Antiquitarians. They are those who, either from
erroneous scholarship, or an erroneous and pedantic estimate
of the function of Scholarship, and of the right of the past
to control the present, defended Prelacy in England on the
ground of antiquity and sacredness. Here Milton discusses
both the question of fact and the question of reason. He
maintains, in the first place, by means of quotations from
Ignatius, Cyprian, and other Fathers and later authorities, that
whatever Episcopacy did exist in the primitive Church was
an entirely different thing from the modern Episcopacy. He
maintains that the primitive Bishops were popularly elected,
had no regular diocesan jurisdictions, and were not elevated
remarkably above the body of the Presbyters. But what
though the primitive Episcopacy had been the true prototype
of modern Prelacy ? Was that primitive age itself so mightily
wise that all the subsequent world was to be bound hand and
foot by its whims or its decisions ? On the contrary, what so
corrupt as the Primitive Church ? Were not its own greatest
men conscious of this ? Had it not been their universal
habit to disclaim while living the very infallibility claimed now
for their dead bones ? Had they not confessed themselves
erring men, and appealed always to Scripture and reason
1641.] MILTON'S FIRST PAMPHLET. 243
as the sole ultimate authority ? Here again then are cita-
tions of Ignatius, Eusebius, Hegesippus, Iremeus, Tertullian,
.Justin Martyr, Origen, Sulpitius, Athanasius, Cyprian, Lac-
tan tius, St. Augustine, &c. A great point in the argument is
that the so-called establishment and endowment of Chris-
tianity by the Emperor Constantine, instead of being the
magnificent thing that the Antiquitarians made of it, had
been in reality the transaction of a Christianity already
rotten. On the general character of the great Christian
Emperor, and on this particular act of his, intertwining
Church and State, Milton is very sarcastic; and he helps
himself to passages from Dante, Petrarch, and Ariosto, which
he translates for the purpose. Thus from Dante's Inferno : —
Ah ! Constantine, of how much ill was cause
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy Pope received of thee !
Having thus fought the battle with the Antiquitarians,
Milton has a word, and but a word, on the second class of
obstructives, the Libertines. They are those who, detesting
in their hearts Church -discipline of any sort, think that
the next best thing to no-Church is the Church that prac-
tically will give least trouble. On this account they prefer
Prelacy, which puts but a Bishop in every diocese, to Pres-
bytery, which might produce you a Pope in every parish.
With these men, for whom Turkish or Jewish discipline
would be as good as Christian, what need of arguing ? Their
ideal of a minister of the Gospel was Chaucer's Friar :
Full swetely heard he confessioun,
And pleasant was his absolutioun :
ll<> was an easie man to give penance.
The Antiquitarians and the Libertines having been thus
dealt with in the first Book, the second Itook is reserved
rn i i rely for the Politicians. Opening with a passage of sin-
gular grandeur on the work and aims of the true statesman,
as conceived by the great souls of antiquity, in contrast with
that low and peddling State-polity which seemed alone to
be within the conception of modern theorists, Milton
244 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
argues that it was only on the maxims and principles of
this lower and degraded kind of State-polity that Episcopacy
was anywhere defended. Not from such politics as were to
be found in the Bible, or in Plato, or Aristotle, or Tacitus,
could modern politicians fetch reasons for Episcopacy, but
only from " the schools of Loyola, with his Jesuits, or their
Malvezzi, that can cut Tacitus into slivers and steaks."1
But, let them derive their arguments whence they would,
of what worth were they ? For about twenty pages this
inquiry is prosecuted. Eefusing to allow that there is any
need whatever of conformity in a spiritual body like the
Church to any " temporal regiment of weal-publick," whether
popular, aristocratic, or monarchical, Milton yet applies
himself to the great contemporary argument of the superior
consistency of Episcopacy in the Church with a Monarchy
such as that of England. Surveying the history of the
Eoman Empire after Constantine, and then that of the
Frankish kingdoms and of Mediaeval Europe, he asserts that
Episcopacy had been uniformly hostile to Monarchy, and
that the Papacy had built itself out of the spoils wrung by
bishops from potentates of too easy temper. Then, restricting
his view to England, he repeats more elaborately and elo-
quently the story, which had been told in the Postscript to
the pamphlet of Smectymnuus, of the continuous struggle of
ambitious Prelates with the Anglo-Saxon and Norman
Kings, and down even to the Tudors. There is a coincidence
between that postscript to Smectymnuus (which had been
furnished in the rough, as I believe, to the Smectymnuans
by Milton himself) and the enumeration to which Milton
proceeds of the more recent crimes and cruelties chargeable
against even the Eeformed bishops since the days of Henry
and Elizabeth. " What the practices of the Prelates have
" been ever since, from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth
" to this present day," the Smectymnuans had said in their
Postscript, "would fill a volume, like Ezekiel's roll, with
" lamentation, mourning and woe, to record. For it hath
1 The Marquis Virgilio Malvezzi (1599 — 1654) was an Italian statesman, and
commentator on Tacitus,
1641.] MILTON'S FIRST PAMPHLET. 245
" been their great design to hinder all further reformation ;
" to bring in doctrines of Popery, Arminianisin, and Liber-
" tinism; to maintain, propagate, and much increase the
" burden of human ceremonies ; to keep out and beat
" down the preaching of the Word ; to oppose and persecute
" the most real professors ; to turn all religion into a pomp-
" ous outside, and to tread down the power of godliness ;
" insomuch that it is come to be an ordinary proverb that
" when anything is spoilt we used to say ' The Bishop's foot
" hath been in it.' " To this indictment Milton returns in
his own treatise. All that Leighton or Prynne, or even
Penry and the early Marprelatists, had written against
Bishops and Episcopacy is as nothing compared with the
tremendous denunciations of Milton. He rolls and thunders
charge after charge ; he tasks all his genius for epithets and
expressions of scorn ; he says things of Bishops, Arch-
bishops, the English Liturgy, and some of the dearest forms
of the English Church, the like of which could hardly be
uttered now in any assembly of Englishmen without hissing
and execration. He works himself at last into a paroxysm
of mingled rage and sorrow at the picture which he has
conjured up of the woful condition into which Episcopacy
had reduced not only England but the whole of the British
Islands. After a passing glance at one or two recent
Episcopal pamphlets, and at the petitions of the Universities
for Deans and Chapters, he bursts all the bounds of ordinary
literary form, and takes refuge in an ode of prayer. As we
quoted the beginning of the pamphlet, so we will quote this,
its close. It is a passage of prose-poetry to which I have
found nothing comparable yet in the whole range of English
literature : —
" O Sir, I do now feel myself enrapt on the sudden into those
mazes and labyrinths of dreadful and hideous thoughts that which
way to get out or which way to end I know not, unless I turn
mine eyes, and, with your help, lift up my hands to that eternal
and propitious Throne where nothing is readier than grace and
refuge to tip di Mix-sues of mortal suppliants; and it were a shame
to leave these serious thoughts less piously than the heathen were
246 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
wont to conclude their graver discourses. — —Thou, therefore,
that sitst in light and glory unapproachable, Parent of Angels and
Men ! next thee I implore, Omnipotent King, Redeemer of that
lost remnant whose nature thou didst assume, Ineffable and Ever-
lasting Love ! and Thou, the third substance of Divine Infinitude,
Illumining Spirit, the joy and solace of created things ! one Tri-
personal GODHEAD ! look upon this thy poor and almost spent and
expiring Church ; leave her not thus a prey to these importunate
wolves, that wait and think long till they devour thy tender flock, —
these wild boars that have broke into thy vineyard, and left the
print of their polluting hoofs on the souls of thy servants. O let
them not bring about their damned designs that stand now at the
entrance of the bottomless pit, expecting the watch-ward to open
and let out those dreadful locusts and scorpions, to reinvolve us in
that pitchy cloud of infernal darkness, where we shall never more
see the sun of thy Truth again, never hope for the cheerful dawn,
never more hear the bird of morning sing. Be moved with pity at
the afflicted state of this our shaken monarchy, that now lies labour-
ing under her throes, and struggling against the grudges of more
dreaded calamities. O Thou, that after the impetuous rage of five
bloody inundations, and the succeeding sword of intestine war
soaking the land in her own gore, didst pity the sad and ceaseless
revolution of our swift and thick-coming sorrows, — when we were
quite breathless, of thy free grace didst motion peace and terms of
covenant with us, and, having first wellnigh freed us from Anti-
christian thraldom, didst build up this Britannic Empire to a
glorious and enviable heighth with all her daughter-islands about
her, — stay us in this felicity ; let not the obstinacy of our half-
obedience and will- worship bring forth that viper of sedition that
for these four-score years hath been breeding to eat through the
entrails of our peace ; but let her cast her abortive spawn without
the danger of this travailing and throbbing Kingdom, that we may
still remember in our solemn thanksgivings how for us the northern
ocean, even to the frozen Thule, was scattered with the proud ship-
wracks of the Spanish Armada, and the very maw of Hell ran-
sacked, and made to give up her concealed destruction, ere she could
vent it in that terrible and damned blast. O how much more
glorious will those former deliverances appear when we shall know
them not only to have saved us from greatest miseries past, but to
have reserved us for greatest happiness to come ! Hitherto thou
hast but freed us, and that not fully, from the unjust and tyrannous
claim of thy foes ; now unite us entirely, and appropriate us to thy-
1641.] MILTON'S FIRST PAMPHLET. 247
self ; tie us everlastingly in willing homage to the prerogative of
thy Eternal Throne. And now we know, O Thou our most certain
hope and defence, that thine enemies have been consulting all the
sorceries of the Great Whore, and have joined their plots with that
sad Intelligencing Tyrant that mischiefs the world with his mines of
Ophir, and lies thirsting to revenge his naval ruins that have
larded our seas. But let them all take counsel together, and let
it come to nought ; let them decree, and do Thou cancel it ; let
them embattle themselves and be broken, let them embattle
and be broken, for Thou art with us ! Then, amidst the hymns
and halleluiahs of Saints, some one may perhaps be heard
offering at high strains in new and lofty measures, to sing and
celebrate thy divine mercies and marvellous judgments in this
land throughout all ages ; whereby this great and warlike nation,
instructed and inured to the fervent and continual practice
of truth and righteousness, and casting far from her the rags of
her old vices, may press on to that high and happy emulation, to
be found the soberest, wisest, and most Christian people at that
day when Thou, the eternal and shortly-expected King, shalt open
the clouds to judge the several kingdoms of the world, and, dis-
tributing national honours and rewards to religious and just com-
monwealths, shalt put an end to all earthly tyrannies, proclaiming
thy universal and mild monarchy through Heaven and Earth.
When they, undoubtedly, that by their labours, counsels, and
prayers, have been earnest for the common good of religion and
their country shall receive, above the inferior orders of the Blessed,
the regal addition of Principalities, Legions, and Thrones into their
glorious titles, and, in supereminence of beatific vision progressing
the dateless and irrevoluble circle of Eternity, shall clasp insepar-
able hands with joy and bliss in over-measure for ever. But they,
contrary, that, by the impairing and diminution of the true Faith,
the distresses and servitude of their country, aspire to high dignity,
rule, and promotion here, after a shameful end in this life (which
God grant them !) shall be thrown down eternally into the darkest
and deepest gulf of Hell ; where, under the despiteful control, the
trample and spurn, of all the other Damned, that in the anguish of
their torture shall have no other ease than to exercise a raving and
bestial tyranny over them as their slaves and negroes, they shall
remain in that plight for ever, the basest, the lowermost, the most
dejected, most underfoot and down-trodden, vassals of Perdition.''
Although Milton had not chosen to put his name to the
248 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
pamphlet, he was not ashamed of it. He seems even to have
been at some pains to circulate it in proper quarters ; for
copies exist which he himself presented to friends or to
libraries. In looking over the various copies in the British
Museum library, I came upon one which interested me
particularly. On the title-page, in the place where the
author's name should have been printed, it bears the words
" By Mr. John Milton" written, with peculiar neatness, in his
own hand ; and a little lower on the same page, in the same
hand, are the words " Ex Dono Authoris," showing that it
was a presentation-copy. Sticking in some of the letters I
could still see particles of the silvery dust which had been
thrown over the writing while the ink was still wet, to serve
the purpose of our modern blotting-paper. Nay, on turning
over the leaves, I found that, before giving away this copy,
Milton had taken the trouble of correcting with his pen the
" faults escap't in the printing," of which there is a list as
usual at the beginning. In twelve several cases he had
written the verbal correction in the margin, or ticked in
an omitted comma.1
Hardly can this first pamphlet of Milton's have been in
circulation when his second appeared. It is a much slighter
affair, and is less a general manifesto of Milton's opinions
than a reply to a particular form of the argument on the
other side.
Among the Pro-Episcopal pamphlets that had been recently
issued, we noted, in addition to Hall's, the short one prepared
at Hall's request by Usher, and published towards the end
of May, under the title The Judgment of Doctor Eainoldes
touching the originall of Episcopacy, more largely confirmed
1 The copy is among the King's Pam- title-page — " By Mr. John Milton " and
phlets, with the press-mark 3512G-G-3- " E\Doj10 Authoris "-are in Milton's
12 own hand. A particular stroke through
As I have already had public occasion the J, usual in Milton's signature, is
to refer to this copy, as exhibiting an wanting ; and it is suggested that the
autograph of Milton not detected till inscriptions are Thomason's or by his
my reference to it, I retain what I have order. I remain unconvinced. At all
written in the text. I ought to add, events the marginal corrections of the
however, that some of the Museum text of the pamphlet are Milton's. There
officials have expressed their doubts *s no doubt about that,
to me whether the inscriptions on the
i64i.] MILTON'S SECOND PAMPHLET.
out of Antiquity by James, Archbishop of Arniayh. We
merely noted the appearance of this tract as adding to the
difficulties in the way of the Root-and-Branch party. It
added to their difficulties by exhibiting among the opponents
of their views not only Hall, the Oxford Divines, and other
churchmen more or less of Laudiau reputation, but also the
prelate who had hitherto been perhaps the most popular and
venerated among the Puritans, as he was certainly the most
famous by his erudition. It is necessary now to look at the
tract itself. Three of the sixteen pages of which it con-
sists are a quotation or reprint of that " Judgment of Doctor
Rainoldes " which gives the tract part of its title. Dr. John
Reynolds was an Elizabethan divine (1550 — 1607) whose
memory was still green. He had been President of Corpus
Christi College, Oxford ; and, as he had been of Puritan or
Low-Church sympathies, and had declined a bishopric, any
views of his as to the origin of Episcopacy were peculiarly
free from suspicion.1 Well, in one of his writings, published
in 1584, he had summed up his views on this subject as
follows : — " When Elders were ordained by the Apostles in
" every church through every city to feed the flock of Christ,
" whereof the Holy Ghost had made them overseers, they,
" to the intent they might the better do it by common con-
" sent, did use to assemble themselves and meet together.
" In the church -meetings, for the more orderly handling and
" concluding of things pertaining to their charge, they chose
" one amongst them to be the President of their company
" and moderator of their actions ; as, in the Church of
" Ephesus, though it had sundry elders and pastors to guide
" it, yet amongst these sundry was one chief, whom our
" Saviour calleth The Angel of the Church, and writeth that
" to him which by him the rest should know. And this is he
" whom afterward, in the Primitive Church, the Fathers called
" Bishop. For, as the name of Ministers, common to all
" them who serve Christ in the stewardship of the mysteries
" of God, — that is, in preaching the Gospel, — is now, by the
" custom of the English speech, restrained to elders who are
' Wood's Athon. II. 12-19 and I. 635.
250 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" under a Bishop, so the name of Bishop, common to all
" elders and pastors of the Church, was then, by the usual
" language of the Fathers, appropriated to him who had the
" presidentship over the Elders."- — Such was Keynolds's
summary as to the origin of Episcopacy ; and it was this
very moderate view, falling so far short of the High- Church
theory, that Usher was prepared to adopt and to confirm.
His confirmations of it occupy the rest of the tract. In
an array of learned quotations, all punctually cited, and
with the original Greek or Latin in the margin, Usher
argues for the identity, as alleged by Keynolds, of the first
Bishops with those who are called in the New Testament
" The Angels of the Churches," and also for the governing
or presidential authority of these original Bishops. That
Timothy was the first " Tlpoeo-ra)?, or antistes, or president
of the Ephesian Presbytery," and also the Angel of the
Ephesian Church, is argued from Scripture, from the words
of Leontius, Bishop of Magnesia, at the Council of Chal-
cedon, from the admission of Beza and the authority of
Eusebius, and from passages in two ancient treatises con-
cerning the martyrdom of Timothy : " the one nameless,
" in the library of Photius ; the other bearing the name of
" Polycrates, even of that Polycrates who was not only
" himself Bishop of this Church of Ephesus, but born also
" 36 or 37 years after St. John wrote the forenamed Epistle
" unto the Angel of that Church, as it appeareth by the
" years he was of when he wrote that Epistle unto Victor,
'• Bishop of Eome, wherein he maketh mention of seven
" kinsmen of his that had been bishops." Usher then fol-
lows the argument, in the same detailed manner, through
Ignatius, Polycarp, and Irenseus. On the testimony of
Irenseus he lays great stress, inasmuch as Irenseus not only
knew Smyrna and its bishops well, but had been present
when Polycarp himself "did discourse of his conversation
" with St. John and of those things which he had heard from
" them who had seen our Lord Jesus." Then, after Irenseus,
there come Tertullian, Hegesippus, Eusebius (with a reference
also by Symeon Metaphrastes to " some part of Eusebius, as
1641.] MILTON'S SECOND PAMPHLET. 251
it seeineth, that is not come into our hands"), Jerome,
Clement of Alexandria, &c. Usher ends in the conclusion
that the Angels of the Seven Churches in the Apocalypse
were seven original Bishops ; and he appends a suggestion,
derived from an anonymous writer mentioned by Photius,
that St. John himself, on his recall from Patmos, lived in
Ephesus, exercising a kind of Primacy or Archbishopric over
the Seven Bishops, and so bequeathing a metropolitan dignity
or Patriarchate to the Ephesian see.
Milton probably regarded Usher in this tract as a con-
summate example of those " Antiquitarians " ("Dryasdusts"
is now the accepted modern name for them) whom he had
denounced in his first pamphlet as one of the three classes
of persons by whom the Reformation had been hindered.
Always a man that would fly at high game rather than at
inferior birds, he had no hesitation in attempting a reply
even to this tract of the renowned Irish Primate, which
might be regarded as Antiquitarianism at its best. Accord-
ingly, in the course of June or July, as I calculate, there was
published, at the shop of the same Underbill in Wood Street
who had published Milton's former pamphlet, a smaller
pamphlet, also anonymous, but of which there are copies
with Milton's name inserted in the title-page by contem-
porary hands, and one copy at least with the words " By
John Milton " on the title-page in (as I thought when I saw
it ) Milton's own hand.1 The pamphlet is entitled, " Of Pre-
latical Episcopacy, and whither it may be deduc'd from the
Aimtolical times by vertut of those testimonies which are
alleged to that purpose in some late Treatises; one whereof
goes under the name of James, Archbishop of Armagh.
London : Printed by R. 0. and G. D. for Thomas Underhill,
and are to be sold at the signe of the Bible in Wood
Street: 1641."
The pamphlet consists of twenty-four small quarto pages.
It opens with an expression of the author's contempt for the
Antiquitarian or Dryasdust mode of thought. There are
1 King's Pamphlet*, British Museum, E. 164.
252 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
men, he says, who, not content with the light of Scripture on
questions of policy, or with the broad and free exercise of
the human intellect studying human needs and uses, " cannot
" think any doubt resolved, and any doctrine confirmed,
" unless they run to that indigested heap, and fry of authors,
" which they call Antiquity." In especial, in Church-questions
they run to the Fathers. But who are the Fathers ? " What-
" soever Time or the heedless hand of blind Chance hath
" drawn down from of old to this present in her huge drag-
" net, whether fish or sea-weed, shells or shrubs, unpicked,
" unchosen, these are the Fathers." Never theless it might be
well to follow one of these Antiquitarian spirits in his
" foraging after straw," to see what his findings were really
worth. The tract, accordingly, is an attempted answer, step
by step, and citation by citation, to that of Usher, with
allusions, but only allusions, to others than Usher. Each fact
or citation of Usher's is, as it were, lifted by the roots, and
held up to the public gaze, in order that unlearned people
may be disabused of any superstitious idea of its value. A
few pages are first given to the subject of Timothy's alleged
Episcopate at Ephesus, and to an examination of Usher's
witnesses for it. The conclusion is that, when the character,
opportunities, and words of each witness are examined in the
light of such common sense as men would apply to any
ordinary matter, his credibility vanishes. On two of the
witnesses cited, — the anonymous writer quoted by Photius,
and the redoubtable Polycrates who wrote the letter to Pope
Victor in which he spoke of having seven brothers who
were bishops as well as himself, — Milton is grimly facetious.
What ? Eely on a nameless author quoted by Photius, who
himself lived 900 years after Christ ! Why not as well take
from the same Photius the story, evidently quite as precious
to Photius, of the martyrdom of the Seven Sleepers, who had
slept in a cave 372 years without food ? Or Polycrates ! If
Usher had told his readers that this Polycrates declared " that
St. John was a priest and wore the golden breastplate," and
had told them that the very Pope Victor to whom his letter
was addressed, so far from showing him respect, "excom-
1641.] MILTON'S THIRD I-AMPULET. 253
municated him aud all the Asian Churches for celebrating
their Easter judaically," would it not have been felt that his
" traditional ware " was little to be esteemed, and that he
might " go back to the seven bishops his kinsmen " and not
be much missed ? In the same half-contemptuous style
Milton follows Usher in his appeals to Ignatius, Irenaeus,
Tertullian, Metaphrastes, Clemens Alexandrinus, &c., en-
deavouring to show that no proof comes out of any of them
of an apostolically deduced Episcopate, or prelacy over presby-
ters, in Smyrna or in Rome, any more than in Ephesus. In
all Milton shows competent scholarship even against Usher,
though doubtless some of his readings in the Fathers were
but researches for the occasion in locis citatis after he had
Usher's tract in his hand.
All but simultaneously with this second pamphlet of
Milton's must have appeared his third. It was a reply to
an eminent Prelate, but one to whom Milton felt a
fiercer antagonism than to Usher, and whom he classed
not with the Antiquitarians or Dryasdusts, but with an
order possessing a more brilliant vein of popular talent and
a greater capacity for mischief. This was Bishop Hall.
The bulky answer of the Smectymnuans, published about
March 20, to Hall's Humble Remonstrance, published in the
end of January, had not passed unnoticed by the Bishop.
Within the space of three weeks his ready pen had written a
rejoinder as bulky, which was published about the middle of
April, with this title : " A Defence of the Humble Remonstrance
against the frivolous and false exceptions of Smectymnuus ;
wherein the right of Liturgie and Episcopacie is clearly vin-
dicated from tJie vain cavils and challenges of the Answerers :
By the Author of the said Humble Remonstrance : Seconded
(by way of appendance) with the Judgment of the famous
Divine of the Palatinate, Abrahamus Scultetus, late Professor
of Divinity in the University of Heidelberg, concerning tlic
divine right of Episcopacie and the no-right of Lay-elder-
ship ; faithfully translated out of the Latin." l Prefixed to this
» " London : Printed for Nathan. the registration nt Stationer*' Hall in
I'.utt, -i Hull, near St. April 12, 1641.
Austin's Gate, 1W1." The date of
254 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
pamphlet, which consists of 180 pages in all, is an epistle to
the King. " Your Majesty," it says, " was pleased to cast a
" gracious eye upon a late Humble Eemonstrance made to
" the High Court of Parliament, bemoaning the lawless
" frequence of scandalous libels, and modestly asserting the
" true right of Liturgy and Episcopacy. I little thought that
" so meek and gall-less a discourse could have irritated any
" the least opposition ; but now . . . Yet the riot of these
" impotent assailants should not easily have drawn me forth,
" had I not perceived that their confident ostentation and
" proud carriage in the affray hath won them (how unde-
" served soever) opinion of skill with their credulous abettors,
" and thereby some disadvantage to my just cause." Eight
pages are then occupied with preliminary skirmishings.
Much is made of the fact that his assailants are a conclave
of several persons, and more of that blunder of theirs, in
the outset of their pamphlet, where they had spoken of the
" Areopagi " as Athenian judges. " The Areopagi ! Who
" were these ? Truly, my masters, I had thought this had
" been the name of the place, not of the men." About
twenty-four pages are then devoted to the subject of the
Liturgy, and 126 to the subject of Episcopacy. There is
in these pages a real endeavour to be argumentative, though
still with much of that reckless use of adjectives, presup-
posing himself right and his opponents wrong, which is
Hall's characteristic. Ten pages are given to a criticism
of the Postscript of the Sniectyinnuans concerning the history
of Episcopacy in England, — which postscript Hall declares
to be only a reproduction from Leighton's " Sion's Plea against
Prelaty " ; and the last twelve pages consist of the translation
of the judgment of Scultetus. That judgment had appeared
originally in a brief tract of Scultetus in which Hall had
been referred to by name and his opinions on Episcopacy
defended.1 Hall, though still writing only as " The Humble
Remonstrant," thus indirectly acknowledges the authorship.
1 Abraham Scultetus, alias Scultet, about 1594, under the protection of the
or Schultz, was a German Protestant Elector Palatine, and had become Pro-
divine of some distinction, who had fessor of Theology there in 1618. He
vsettled in Heidelberg as a preacher, had visited England in 1612 and become
1641.] MILTON'S THIRD PAMPHLET. 255
Two months and a half had elapsed since this reply of
Hall to the Smectymnuans had appeared, and he must have
been fancying that he had silenced them, when, towards the
end of June, there appeared " A Vindication of the Answer to
the Humble Remonstrance f ram the unjust imputations of Frivo-
lousnesse and Falsehood; wherein tlie cause of Liturgy and
Episcopacy is further debated ; By the same Smectymnuus" l
In a note of the Printer, prefixed to this pamphlet, he says,
" The crowding of so many little pamphlets into the press
hath for many weeks detained this Book, to the great grief of
the Authors." To have been got ready so soon as this note
implies, the pamphlet is a very bulky one. It consists of
219 pages. But it is to be remembered that there were
several hands to the task. The pamphlet is dedicated to the
Parliament. It again goes over the whole field of debate
concerning the Liturgy and Episcopacy, in the somewhat
heavy but painstaking Smectymnuan style. In the prelimi-
nary remarks the writers show that they have been nettled
by Hall's imputation upon their scholarship on account of
their blundering use of the word " Areopagi." Does he really
think that they were so ignorant as not to know that the
more correct word would have been " AreopagiUe," though
" Areopagi " might be used for shortness ? And is the
Humble Remonstrant himself so free from verbal slips that
he may make merry over so small a matter ? What a piece
of slipshod English, for example, is this in his own last
performance — " These otlier verbal exceptions are but light
froth, and will sink alone " ! The Remonstrant's " light froth
sinking alone" is as good a blunder any day, think the
Smectymnuans, as their " Areopagi " ; and, to show him that
it had amused others as well as themselves, they tell him
this story in the margin : — " A gentleman-student in Phi-
.ir.pi. tinted with thu chiuf Kn^li.sh di- not boon able to lay my hands on tho
vincH, including Hull. Mix last yean particular tract of Scultotus from
were much disturbed by tho ruin <>f thu which Hall quotes,
cause of his patron, thu Klui-t«»r I'al.-itinu ! "Printed for John Rothwell at tho
Frederick, &fag of Bohemia, at thu Sunno in Paul's Churchyard : 1641."
buttle of Pnitfiiu in ItJ'Jp; and ho had The date of tho registration at Sta-
<li«l in retirement at Kuidun in 1025. tionern' Hall i* June 26, 1641.
•:., nary, art X->/^/.). I have
256 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" losophy, that was by chance present at the reading of this
" passage, took such a fancy to this rare mystery of light
" froth sinking alone that he would take no nay till he had
" entreated us to obtain so much of the Eemonstrant as to
" publish his receipt of making light froth sink alone, that
" it may be added to the Secrets of Alexis or the rare
" experiments of Baptista Porta." l
Whether Milton was the "gentleman-student of Phi-
losophy" who thus dropped in upon the Smectymnuans
when they were reading Hall's Defence, and helped them
to a laugh over his "light froth sinking alone," is open to
guess. But precisely what they represent the gentleman-
student as doing for them Milton was doing for them on a
larger scale. Knowing Young and his brother- Smectymnuans
well, and dropping in upon them while they were busy with
their Vindication, it had evidently occurred to Milton that,
though they were very respectable reasoners and theo-
logians, and might be safely entrusted with the solid and
grave parts of the controversy against Hall, yet they were
somewhat too Dutch-built for the lighter style of fighting
necessary in a public encounter with the English Persius
and Seneca. It might be a service both to them and to the
cause to appear as their auxiliary in the battle, and, while
they were laboriously arguing the real questions in a way to
satisfy the judicious, to take care that Hall should not have
even the apparent advantage, with the literary order of
critics, by his wit, his culture, and his flowers of rhetoric.
In resolving to become such a light-horseman to the Smec-
tymnuans Milton had, I believe, a peculiar pleasure. Hall, I
believe, was one of his favourite aversions. Not only in the
ecclesiastical opinions and conduct of the man, but, as I
think, in the whole cast and style of his intellect, as shown
1 The "Secrets of Alexis," origin- of travel over the world, and published
ally in Italian, but of which there in his old age (see art. Alexis in
were translations in Latin (1563), Bayle's Diet. ). The Magia Naturalis or
French (1565), and English (1568), was Natural Magic of the Neapolitan Bap-
a very popular book of the sixteenth tista Porta (1550 — 1615) was a more
century, purporting to be a collection important collection of facts and
of marvels, medical and magical, opinions in physical science, and is
collected by a Piedmontese, calling now better remembered,
himself Alexis, during fifty-seven years
1641.] MILTON'S THIRD PAMPHLET. 257
in his writings, whether in prose or in verse, Milton found
reason for intense dislike. He regarded Hall, I believe, as,
to a great extent, a literary impostor, a man of an essentially
coarse and mean order of talent, who had been rated far above
his deserts, and whom it would be a service to literature, as
well as to sound Church-polity, to blast and show up. It
was nothing less than this, at all events, that he attempted.
Never had Hall, in all his forty years of public and literary
life, been so handled as he was now to be handled, in his
sixty-eighth year and with all his episcopal honours thick
about him, by the new pamphleteer in Aldersgate Street,
who was not half his age. The venerable Prelate can hardly
have read the Vindication of the Smectymnuans in reply to
his Defence when word was brought to him of another
pamphlet, by some friend of the Smectymnuans, which it
would be well for him to see. It was entitled " Animad-
versions upon the Remonstrant's Defence against Smcctymnuus.
London : Printed for Thomas Underhttl, and are to be sold at
the signe of the Bible in Wood Street : 1 6 4 1 ." l The publisher,
it will be seen, was the same who had published the two
preceding pamphlets of Milton. Like them, this was
anonymous.
" Animadversions " is a very good name for the pamphlet.
It consists of sixty-eight small quarto pages, introduced by
an apologetic preface. For Milton, knowing that he is to
show Hall no mercy, and is to employ against him every
cracker of jest, pun, personality, or scurrility, foresees that
some " softer-spirited Christians " may take offence at such
a style of controversy on such serious topics with a man of
such age and dignity. " In the detecting and convincing," he
says, " of any notorious enemy to truth and his country's
" peace, especially that is conceited to have a voluble and
1 The pamphlet not being registered 12 ; and, as'no reference is made to Hall's
in Stationers' Hall, that convenient ncjct pamphlet in reply to the Smoc-
means of ascertaining the date fails me. tymnuans, it must have appeared before
But it may be fixed ny other evidence that pamphlet was published, i.e., as
almost certainly to July. As reference wo shall see, before July 28. But in
is made in the pamphlet to the Petitions the pamphlet Milton has an allusion to
of the Universities for Deans and Chap- " this hot season " ; whence July is the
tors, it must have appeared after May likely month.
VOL. II 8
258 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" smart fluence of tongue, ... it will be nothing disagreeing
" from Christian meekness to handle such a one in a rougher
" accent, and to send home his haughtiness well bespurted
" with his own holy water." He hints, moreover, that Hall,
in his defences of Episcopacy, has shown insincerity and
double-dealing, abandoning in his later defences the high
Laudian position he had taken in his Episcopacy by Divine
Eight, and adapting himself meanly to the changed tune of
the times by at length leaving Episcopacy "hanging by a
twined thread, not from Divine command, but from Apo-
stolical precedence or assent." On this account there need
be the less respect for him. Again, "Although, in the
" serious uncasing of a grand imposture (for, to deal plainly
" with you, Readers, Prelatry is no better) there be mixed
" here and there such a grim laughter as may appear at the
" same time in an austere visage, it cannot be taxed of levity
" or insolence ; for even this vein of laughing (as I could
" produce out of grave authors) hath ofttimes a strong and
" sinewy force in teaching and confuting." Accordingly,
throughout the pamphlet Milton's plan is as follows: — -
Extracting passage after passage verbatim from Hall's De-
fence, with reference to the page and section from which it
is taken, he appends to each passage a satirical comment as
pungent as he can concoct. The comment is generally very
short, and such as a critic, reading, with pencil in hand, a
book that disgusted him, might jot down at the moment on the
margin against this passage or that passage. Sometimes, how-
ever, it is longer and more careful, and involves sarcastic re-
ferences to Hall's previous writings, either as already familiar
to Milton, or as looked into for the occasion. These references
are more particularly to Hall's Satires published in 1597-8,
and to another even more unclerical production of Hall's
earlier life, published abroad and anonymously in 1607 under
the title Mundus Alter et Idem, and consisting of a kind of
Rabelaisian fiction in Latin, describing the imaginary countries
of Crapulia (Gutsy-Land), Pamphagonia (the Kingdom of
Stomach), Yvronia (the Dominion of Drink), &c., of which
a jocular map is prefixed. This last-named publication of
1641.] MILTON'S THIRD PAMPHLET. 259
Hall's, which by this time he probably wished at the bottom
of the Red Sea, was too fit for Milton's purpose to be over-
looked. He may have been at some trouble to obtain a copy
of the little volume, which is very rare now, and was probably
a rarity even then ; but, once he had a copy, Hall might
expect to hear of it
Some of Milton's " Animadversions " are really so much
beyond the bounds of modern good taste that it is difficult
to quote them. Specimens, however, must be given, not only
because it is fair that the reader should see Milton, for better
or worse, exactly as he was, but also because there was to be
plenty of retort upon him on this very ground.
Of course, Milton has a word of defence for the slip of his
friends the Smectymnuans in talking of " the Areopngi." Of
course, also, Hall's " light froth sinking alone " does not pass
without notice. But the following is more characteristic.
The Remonstrant having, at page 34, used these words in
reference to the Smectymnuans, " Now come these brotherly
slanderers," Milton's answer is, " Go on, dissembling Joab,
" as still your use is : call brother and smite, call brother
" and smite, till it be said of you, as the like was of Herod,
" a man had better be your hog than your brother." Again,
the Remonstrant having said, at page 37, "Alas! we could
" tell you of China, Japan, Peru, Brazil, New England, Vir-
" ginia, and a thousand others that never had any Bishops
" to this day," Milton is down upon him thus : " We can help
" you, and tell you where they have been ever since Constan-
" tine's time at the least, — in a place called Mandus Alter ct
" Idem, in the spacious and rich countries of Crapulia
" (Gutsy-land), Pamphagonia (Kingdom of Stomach), Yvroniu
" (Dominion of Drink)," &c. Again, the Remonstrant having,
at p. 141, made this appeal to the Sraectymnuans, " If yet you*
can blush," Milton declares this conceit of blushes and blush-
ing to be so hackneyed that to see it in a book again is more
than an educated reader can stand. He proceeds : " A man
" would think you had eaten over-liberally of Esau's red
" porridge, and from thence dream continually of bhishing,
" or, perhaps, to heighten your fancy in writing, are wont to
260 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" sit in your Doctor's scarlet, which, through your eyes
" infecting your frequent imagination with a red suffusion,
" begets a continual thought of blushing, that you thus per-
" secute ingenuous men over all your book with this one
" overtired rubrical conceit of blushing. But, if you have no
" mercy upon them, yet spare yourself, lest you beguile the
" good galloway, your own opiniaster wit, and make the very
" conceit itself blush with spur-galling." Here is another bit,
quoted textually : —
Remons. p. 38.] Remon. No one clergy in the whole Christian
world yields so many eminent scholars, learned preachers, grave,
holy, and accomplished divines, as this Church of England doth at
this day.
Answer. Ha ! ha ! ha !
I have stated my belief that the Postscript to the original
pamphlet of Smectymnuus was contributed, or notes for it at
least, by Milton ; and reasons have already appeared which
make this probable. But the most distinct proof is furnished
by the manner in which Milton replies in his Animad-
versions to that part of the Eemonstrant's Defence which
concerned the Postscript. Hall having called that Postscript
" a goodly pasquin, borrowed for a great part out of Sion's
Plea or the Breviate consisting of a rhapsody of histories," —
i.e. having insinuated that it was a mere compilation either
from Alexander Leighton's Sion's Plea against the Prelacie
(1628), or from Prynne's Breviate of the Bishop's Intolerable
Usurpations and Encroachments (1635), — Milton replies in
words which seem those of an author defending himself
against a charge of plagiarism. " How wittily," he says,
" you tell us what your wonted course is upon the like
" occasion ! The collection was taken, be it known to you,
" from as authentic authors in this kind as any in a
" bishop's library ; and the collector of it says moreover
" that, if the like occasion come again, he shall less need
" the help of breviates or historical rhapsodies than your
" reverence, to eke out your sermonings, shall need repair to
" postils and polyantheas [viz. Annotations and Collections
1641.] MILTON'S THIRD PAMPHLET. 261
" of Beauties]." After which virtual acknowledgment of
the authorship of the Postscript to the Smectymnuan
treatise, Milton goes on to animadvert with peculiar em-
phasis on the Bishop's remarks relating to it. The Remon-
strant having said that some of the bad or ambitious
bishops mentioned in the Postscript were Popish bishops,
Milton replies that, so long as the Reformed bishops would
bind men " by their canon law," enforce upon them " the old
riff-raff of Sarum," and otherwise walk in the steps of the
Popish bishops, they must take the consequences. " Could
you see no colleges, no hospitals, built ? " asks the Remon-
strant, beginning an enumeration of the good deeds of Bishops
during their sway. " At that primero of piety," retorts Milton,
" the Pope and Cardinals are the better gamesters, and will
cog a die into heaven before you." " No churches re-edified ? "
continues Hall. " Yes, more churches than souls ! " says
Milton. " No seduced persons reclaimed ? " " More reclaimed
persons seduced ! " " No hospitality kept ? " " Bacchanalias
good store in every bishop's family, and good gleeking
[private sport] ! " " No diligence in preaching ? " " Scarce
any preaching at all!" " No holiness in living ?" "No!" The
Remonstrant ending his interrogatives with these words,
" Truly, bretliren, I can say no more but that the fault is in
your eyes : wipe them and look better," Milton answers in
sheer Billingsgate, " Wipe your fat corpulencies out of our
light." Nay, he gets worse and worse. The introduction in
the Smectymnuan Postscript of the proverb " The Bishop's
foot hath been in it," as an expression of the popular belief
that there was nothing more tainting than Episcopacy, had
given particular offence to Hall. He very properly says,
"As for that proverb ' The Bishop's foot Jiath been in it; it
were more fit for a scurra in trivio, or some ribald upon an
ale-bench." Nevertheless, as Hall himself is not too delicate
to avail himself of the proverb in his turn, but adds that
people, seeing how completely his refutation has spoilt the
Smectymnuan book, will have to say of that too, "The
Bishop's foot hath been in it," Milton shows no shame. He
rings all the changes he can think of on the ribald proverb ;
262 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
and there is one perfectly outrageous paragraph, in which he
revels in farther allusions not only to the Bishop's foot, but
to his toes, his nightcap, and his unwashed socks.
Enough has been quoted from this pamphlet and its pre-
decessors to show how uncompromisingly Milton was a son of
Liberty, and how ferociously Eoot-and-Branch he was on the
Church question. Of the splendours of the pamphlets, of
the passages of noble thought and language contained in them,
no one can have an idea who does not read them for himself.
Intermingled even with the scurrilities of the " Animad-
versions " there are bursts of real prose grandeur. In order,
however, that we may have clearer ideas as to some of those
political and ecclesiastical views of Milton which were
contained within his general Koot-and-Branch enthusiasm,
a few quotations will be useful. We take them from the
three pamphlets collectively, prefixing headings : —
True Politics and Modern Politics. — " It is a work good and
prudent to be able to guide one man, — of larger extended virtue, to
order well one house ; but to govern a nation piously and justly,
which only is to say happily, is for a spirit of the greatest size and
divinest metal. And certainly of no less a mind, nor of less excel-
lence, in another way, were they who by writing laid the solid
and true foundations of this science ; which being of the greatest
importance to the life of man, yet there is no art that hath been
more cankered in her principles, more soiled and slubbered with
aphorisming pedantry, than the art of Policy, and that where a man
would think should least be, — in Christian commonwealths. They
teach not that to govern well is to train up a nation in true wisdom
and virtue, and that which springs from thence, magnanimity (take
heed of that !), and that which is our beginning, regeneration, and
happiest end, likeness to God, which in one word we call godliness ;
and that this is the true flourishing of a land, other things follow-
ing as the shadow does the substance. To teach thus were mere
pulpitry to them. This is the masterpiece of a modern politician :
how to qualify and mould the sufferance and subjection of the
people to the length of that foot that is to tread on their necks-;
how rapine may serve itself with the fair and honourable pretences
of public good ; how the puny Law may be brought under the
wardship and control of Lust and Will : in which attempt if they fall
1641.] PASSAGES FROM THE PAMPHLETS. 263
short, then must a superficial colour of reputation by all means,
direct or indirect, be gotten to wash over the unsightly bruise of
honour. To make men governable in this manner, their precepts
mainly tend to break a national spirit and courage by countenancing
open riot, luxury and ignorance, till, having thus disfigured and
made men beneath men, as Juno in the fable of lo, they deliver
up the poor transformed heifer of the Commonwealth to be stung
and vexed with the breese [stinging fly] and goad of oppression
under the custody of some Argus with a hundred eyes of jealousy.
To be plainer, Sir, how to solder, how to stop a leak, how to keep
up the floating carcase of a crazy and diseased monarchy or state
betwixt wind and water, swimming still upon her own dead lees :
that is now the deep design of a Politician." — Of Reformation.
Scripture, The Fathers, and the Councils. — " Let the Scriptures
be hard ; are they more hard, more crabbed, more abstruse, than
the Fathers? He that cannot understand the sober, plain, and
unaffected style of the Scriptures will be ten times more puzzled
with the knotty Africanisms, the pampered metaphors, the intricate
and involved sentences, of the Fathers, besides the fantastic and
declamatory flashes, the cross-jingling periods which cannot but
disturb and come athwart a settled devotion worse than the din of
bells and rattles. . . . Although I know many of those that pre-
tend to be great Rabbis in these studies have scarce saluted them
from the strings and the title-page, or, to give them more, have
been but the ferrets and mousehunts of an index, yet what pastor
or minister, how learned, religious, or discreet soever, does not
now bring both his cheeks full-blown with * (Ecumenical' and
* Synodical ' shall be counted a lank, shallow, unsufficient man, yea
a dunce, and not worthy to speak about Reformation of Church
Discipline. But I trust they for whom God hath reserved the
honour of reforming this Church will easily perceive their adver-
saries' drift in thus calling for Antiquity. They fear the plain field
of the Scriptures ; the chase is too hot ; they seek the dark, the
bushy, the tangled forest ; they would embosk. They feel them-
selves strook in the transparent streams of divine truth ; they
would plunge and tumble and think to be hid in the foul weeds
and muddy waters where no plummet can reach the bottom. But
let them beat themselves like whales, and spend their oil, till they
be dredged ashore."— Ibid.
The Relation of the Prelacy to the Crown and the Body-Politic;
A Tale. — " Upon a time the Body summoned all the members to
meet in the Guild for the common good (as yEsop's chronicles aver
264 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
many stranger accidents). The Head by right takes the first seat,
and next to it a huge and monstrous Wen, little less than the head
itself, growing to it by a narrower excrescency. The members,
amazed, began to ask one another what he was that took place next
their chief. None could resolve. Whereat the Wen, though
unwieldy, with much ado gets up, and bespeaks the assembly to
this purpose : that, as in place he was second to the Head, so by
due of merit ; that he was to it an ornament and strength, and of
special near relation, and that, if the Head should fail, none were
fitter than himself to step into his place : therefore he thought it
for the honour of the Body that such dignities and rich endow-
ments should be decreed him as did adorn and set out the noblest
members. To this was answered that it should be consulted.
There was a wise and learned Philosopher sent for, that knew
all the charters, laws, and tenures of the Body. On him it is im-
posed by all as chief committee to examine and discuss the claim
and petition of right put in by the Wen ; who soon perceiving the
matter and wondering at the boldness of such a swoln tumour,
' Wilt thou,' quoth he, ' that art but a bottle of vicious and
hardened excrements, contend with the lawful and free-born mem-
bers, whose certain number is set by ancient and unrepealable
statute 1 Head thou art none, though thou receive this huge sub-
stance from it. What office bearest thou ? What good canst thou
show by thee done to the commonweal?' The Wen, not easily
abashed, replies that his office was his glory ; for, so oft as the soul
would retire out of the Head, from over the steaming vapours of
the lower parts, to divine contemplation, with him she found the
purest and quietest retreat, as being most remote from soil and
disturbance. * Lourdane ! ' quoth the Philosopher, ' thy folly is as
great as thy filth. Know that all the faculties of the soul are con-
fined of old to their several vessels and ventricles, from which they
cannot part without dissolution of the whole Body ; and that thou
containest no good thing in thee, but a heap of hard and loath-
some uncleanness, and art to the Head a foul disfigurement and
burden, when I have cut thee off and opened thee, as by the help
of these instruments I will do, all men shall see.' " — Ibid.
The War with the Scots. — " Nor shall the wisdom, the modera-
tion, the Christian piety, the constancy of our Nobility and Commons
of England be ever forgotten, whose calm and temperate connivance
could sit still and smile out the stormy bluster of men more
audacious and precipitant than of solid arid deep reach, till then our
prey had run itself out of breath, — assailing, by rash and heady
1641.] PASSAGES FROM THE PAMPHLETS. 265
approaches, the impregnable situation of our liberty and safety that
laughed such weak enginry to scorn, such poor drifts to make a
national war of a surplice-brabble, a tippet-scuffle, and engage the
unattainted honour of English Knighthood to unfurl the streaming
Red-cross, or to rear the horrid standard of those fatal guly Dragons,
for so unworthy a purpose as to force upon their fellow-subjects that
which themselves are weary of, the skeleton of a mass-book. Nor
must the patience, the fortitude, the firm obedience of the nobles
and people of Scotland, striving against manifold provocations, nor
must their sincere and moderate proceedings hitherto, be unremem-
bered to the shameful conviction of all their detractors." — Ibid.
The Petitions of the Universities in favour of Episcopacy and
Cathedral Establishments. — "Would you know what the Remon-
strance of these men would have, what their Petition implies?
They entreat us that we would not be weary of those unsupportable
grievances that our shoulders have hitherto cracked under ; they
beseech us that we would think them fit to be our Justices of the
Peace, our Lords, our highest officers of State, though they come
furnished with no more experience than they have learnt between
the Cook and the Manciple, or more profoundly at the College
Audit or the Regent House, or, to come to their deepest insight,
at their Patron's table ; they would request us to endure still the
rustling of their silken cassocks, and that we would burst our
midriffs rather than laugh to see them under sail in all their lawn
and sarcenet, their shrouds and tackle, with a geometrical rhom-
boides upon their heads ; they would bear us in hand that we must
of duty still api>ear before them once a year in Jerusalem like good
circumcised males and females, to be taxed by the poll, to be
sconced our head-money, our twopences, in their chandlerly shop-
book of Easter."— Ibid.
Nearness to the Apostles no Guarantee against Stupidity. — " What
fidelity his [Irenaeus's] relations had in general we cannot sooner
learn than by Eusebius; who, near the end of his Third Book,
speaking of Papias, a very ancient writer, — one that had heard St.
John, and was known to many that had seen and been acquainted
with others of the Apostles, but, being of a shallow wit, and not
understanding those traditions which he received, filled his writings
with many new doctrines and fabulous conceits, — he tells us there
that divers ecclesiastical men, and Irenaeus among the rest, while
they looked at his antiquity, became infected with his errors. Now,
if Irenseus were so rash as to take unexamined opinions from an
author of so small capacity when he was a man, we should be more
266 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
rash ourselves to rely upon those observations which he made when
he was a boy. And this may be a sufficient reason to us why we
need no longer muse at the spreading of many idle traditions so
soon after the Apostles, whilst such as this Papias had the throw-
ing them about, and the inconsiderate zeal of the next age, that
heeded more the person than the doctrine, had the gathering them
up. Wherever a man who had been any way conversant with the
Apostles was to be found, thither flew all the inquisitive ears ; the
exercise of right instructing was changed into the curiosity of
impertinent fabling ; where the mind was to be edified with solid
doctrine, there the fancy was soothed with solemn stories; with
less fervency was studied what Saint Paul or Saint John had
written than was listened to one that could say : ' Here he taught,
here he stood, this was his stature, and thus he went habited ; and
O happy this house that harboured him, and that cold stone
whereon he rested, this village where he wrought such a miracle,
and that pavement bedewed with the warm effusion of his last
blood, that spouted up into eternal roses to crown his martyr-
dom ! ' Thus, while all their thoughts were poured out upon
circumstances, and the gazing after such men as had been at table
with the Apostles (many of which Christ hath professed, yea
though they had cast out devils in his name, he will not know at
the last day), by this means they lost their time, and truanted on
the fundamental grounds of saving knowledge, as was seen shortly
by their writings." — Of Prelat. Episcop.
The English Liturgy and Extempore Prayer. — "Edward the
Sixth, as Hayward hath written in his Story [The Life and Raigne
of King Edward VI '., by Sir John Hayward, 1599], will tell you,
upon the word of a King, that the order of the Service, and the
use thereof in the English tongue, is no other than the old Service
was, and the same words in English which were in Latin, except a
few things omitted, so fond that it had been a shame to have heard
them in English. These are his words; whereby we are left
uncertain who the author was, but certain that part of the work
was esteemed so absurd by the translators thereof as was to be
ashamed of in English. * O, but the martyrs were the refiners of
it ' ; for that only is left you to say. Admit they were ; they
could not refine a scorpion into a fish, though they had drawn it
and rinsed it with never so cleanly cookery ; which made them fall
at variance among themselves about the use either of it or the
ceremonies belonging to it. ... As for the words, it is more to
be feared that the same continually should make them careless or
1641.] PASSAGES FROM THE PAMPHLETS. 267
sleepy than that variety on the same known subject should distract.
Variety (as both Music and Rhetoric teacheth us) erects and rouses
an auditory, like the masterful running over many chords and
divisions; whereas, if men should ever be thumbing the drone of
one plain-song, it would be a dull opiate to the most wakeful
attention. ... A minister that cannot be trusted to pray in his
own words, without being chewed to, and fescued [directed as if
by a fescue, or schoolmaster's pointer] to a formal injunction of
his rote-lesson, should as little be trusted to preach, — besides the
vain babble of praying over the same things immediately again ;
for there is a large difference in the repetition of some pathetical
ejaculation, raised out of the sudden earnestness and vigour of the
inflamed soul (such was that of Christ in the Garden), from the
continual rehearsal of our daily orisons ; which if a man shall kneel
down in a morning and say over, and presently in another part
of the room kneel down again and in other words ask but still for
the lame things, as it were out of an inventory, I cannot see how
he will escape that heathenish battology of multiplying words
which Christ himself, that has the putting up of our prayers, told
us would not be agreeable to Heaven." — Animadversions.
Ordination. — " As for Ordination, what is it but the laying on
of hands, an outward sign or symbol of admission ? It creates
nothing, it confers nothing. It is the inward calling of God that
makes a minister, and his own painful study and diligence that
manures and improves his ministerial gifts. In the primitive times,
many before ever they had received ordination from the Apostles
had done the Church noble service, — as Apollos and others. It is
but an orderly form of receiving a man already fitted, and com-
mitting to him a particular charge." — Ibid.
A Prayer. — " O, if we freeze at noon after their early thaw [of the
English at the time of the Reformation], let us fear that the Sun
for ever hide himself, and turn his orient steps from our ungrateful
horizon, justly condemned to be eternally benighted. Which
dreadful judgment, O thou the everbegotten Light, and perfect
Image of the Father, intercede may never come upon us, — as we
trust thou hast. For thou hast opened our difficult and sad times,
and given us an unexpected breathing after our long oppressions ;
thou hast done justice upon those that tyrannized over us, while
some men wavered, and admired a vain shadow of wisdom in a
tongue nothing slow to utter guile. . . . Who is there that cannot
trace thee now in thy beamy walk through the midst of thy sanct-
uary, amidst those golden candlesticks which have long suffered a
268 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
dimness amongst us through the violence of those that had seized
them and were more taken with the mention of their gold than of
their starry light 1 . . . Come, therefore, O thou that hast the seven
stars in thy right hand ; appoint thy chosen priests, according to
their orders and courses of old, to minister before thee, and duly to
dress and pour out the consecrated oil into thy holy and ever-burn-
ing lamps. Thou hast sent out the spirit of prayer upon thy servants
over all the land to this effect, and stirred up their vows as the
sound of many waters about thy Throne. Every one can say that
now certainly thou hast visited this land, and hast not forgotten the
utmost corners of the earth, in a time when men had thought that
thou wast gone up from us to the farthest end of the Heavens, and
hadst left to do marvellously among the sons of these last ages.
O, perfect and accomplish thy glorious acts ; for men may leave
their works unfinished, but thou art a God ; thy nature is perfec-
tion. Shouldst thou bring us thus far onward from Egypt to
destroy us in this wilderness, though we deserve, yet thy great
name would suffer in the rejoicing of thine enemies, and the
deluded hope of all thy servants. When thou hast settled peace
in the Church, and righteous judgment in the Kingdom, then shall
all thy saints address their voices of joy and triumph to Thee,
standing on the shore of that Red Sea into which our enemies had
almost driven us. And he that now for haste snatches up a plain
ungarnished present as a thank-offering, to thee, which could not be
deferred in regard of thy so many late deliverances wrought for us
one upon another, may then perhaps take up a harp and sing thee
an elaborate Song to Generations. In that day it shall no more be
said as in scorn, ' This or that was never held so till this present
age,' when men have better learnt that the times and seasons pass
along under thy feet, to go and come at thy bidding. And, as Thou
didst dignify our fathers' days with many revelations above all the
foregoing ages since Thou tookst the flesh, so Thou canst vouchsafe
to us (though unworthy) as large a portion of thy Spirit as Thou
pleasest. For who shall prejudice thy all-governing will, seeing
the power of thy grace is not passed away with the primitive times,
as fond and faithless men imagine, but thy kingdom is now at
hand, and thou standing at the door. Come forth out of thy royal
chambers, O Prince of all the Kings of the Earth; put on the
visible robes of thy Imperial Majesty; take up that unlimited
sceptre which thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed Thee ; for now
the voice of thy Bride calls thee, and all creatures sigh to be
renewed." — Ibid.
CHAPTER V.
IMPEACHMENT OP THIRTEEN BISHOPS — PREPARATIONS FOR A RECESS
— SIX WEEKS OP LULL, AND VIEW OF THE STATE OF PARTIES
— THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND AND ITS INCIDENTS THE IRISH
INSURRECTION.
THE rejection by the Lords of the Bill of the Commons for
the exclusion of Bishops from Parliament was still the great
topic of public interest in England in July 1641. What
would the Commons do ?
IMPEACHMENT OF THIRTEEN BISHOPS.
The policy of the Commons was peculiar. Forsaking for
the moment the Root-and-Branch Bill which had been intro-
duced by Deering, and allowing that Bill to hang in the
imagination of the public as a mere proposition for the
future, in contrast with Bishop Williams's draft of a
Limited Episcopacy Bill proposed in the Lords, they turned
all their energy into a course of action for immediately
clearing the way. This consisted in the impeachment of
as many of the existing Bishops as possible on personal
charges. If they had failed to abolish the Episcopal Bench
in the House of Lords by a direct legislative measure, they
had the means at least of thinning that Bench by putting
on trial a good many of its occupants for past offencea
Again and again had the subject of the Convocation of 1G40
and its illegal canons been discussed in Parliament, by the
Lords as well as by the Commons. Not only had resolutions
been passed as early as December declaring the Canons void,
270 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
but a Bill had been introduced into the Commons (April
1641) "for punishing and fining of the members of the
late Convocation of the Provinces of Canterbury and York."
According to this Bill, Laud's fine was to be 20,000/. ; the
other Bishops implicated were to pay fines of from 1,000/. to
10,0001 each, according to their degrees of culpability ; and
then there was to be a further exaction of fines, in such sums
as 200/., 300/., and 5001., from the Deans, Archdeacons, and
Proctors of the Convocation.1 If the application of this Bill
had been waived, it had been conditionally on the good beha-
viour of those whom it threatened ; and now that, in the
opinion of the Commons, this good behaviour, on the part
of the Bishops at least, had ceased, a new attack upon them
seemed justifiable. In short, on the 4th of August there
was sent up to the Lords a formal impeachment of thirteen
of the Bishops collectively, — Wren, Pierce, Hall, Warner,
Owen of St. Asaph, Skinner, Goodman, Coke, Eoberts,
Wright, Owen of Llandaff, Towers, and Curie, — on account
of their co-operation with Laud in the illegal canons and
other acts of the late Convocation.2 It was prayed of the
Lords that the impeached Bishops " might be forthwith put
" to their answers in the presence of the Commons, and that
" such further proceedings might be had against them as to
" law and justice should appertain." The intention was to
intimidate the Bishops, so as to induce them voluntarily to
withdraw from the House. That object gained, the impeach-
ment would have been dropped. The Bishops, however,
having resolved to stand to their defence, the Commons had
to make up their minds for a prolonged battle. Accordingly,
from the beginning of August all the miscellaneous activity
that had hitherto been rife against Episcopacy, the Liturgy,
Deans and Chapters, &c., was transmuted into the form of
a battle between the Commons and the Bishops personally.
Hardly had the battle been declared (Aug. 4) when an event
happened which was to interrupt it, and to lead, moreover, to
a temporary cessation of all public business whatsoever.
i Parl. Hist. II. 772—3.
a Kushworth, IV. 359, and Commons Journals, Aug. 4, 1641.
1641.] PREPARATIONS FOR A RECESS. 271
PREPARATIONS FOR A RECESS.
We have seen that by the end of June the long and
purposely-protracted proceedings of the Scottish Treaty had
been so far wound up that most of the Scottish Commis-
sioners had gone home, and nothing remained to prevent the
final signature of the Treaty and the disbanding of the two
armies but some arrangements of detail Now, exactly three
days after the impeachment of the Bishops, or on Saturday
the 7th of August, the completed Treaty between the two
kingdoms was signed. It arranged for the payment of the
Scottish indemnity and arrears in three annual instalments ;
it confirmed the past acts of the Scottish Parliament and
guaranteed its future freedom ; and it promised a good
understanding between the two countries in future, to be
shown by endeavours on both sides to attain to a unity of
religion.1 This Treaty having been signed, the clasp which
for near a twelvemonth had united the two nations was
unfastened, and the two were to fall asunder with mutual
expressions of goodwill. But what was the surprise of the
English Parliament when, on the very day of the signing
of the Treaty, the King, going to the Lords, informed them
of his intention to pay an immediate visit to Scotland !
It was one of the provisions of the Treaty that the King
would show his regard for the Scots by occasionally visiting
them, or sending the Prince of Wales to reside among them ;
and since May there had been talk of a royal visit to Scotland
as possible that year. Neither the Scots nor the English,
however, had made sure of the matter ; and both were now
taken somewhat by surprise. The Commons sat till ten
o'clock that night, so perplexed were they by the news ; nay,
they met on the next day, though it was Sunday, for further
business arising out of the King's resolve, — registering a
caution, however, that this Sunday sitting should not be
taken as a precedent. No persuasion could delay the King
even for a fortnight. The Scottish Parliament and General
Assembly were both then sitting, and his immediate presence
» Rushworth, IV. 862-375 ; and Rapin, II. 367-8.
272 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
in Scotland was important ! In short, on Tuesday the 10th
of August he did set out for Scotland, accompanied by his
nephew the Prince-Elector Palatine, the young Duke of
Lennox (then just created Duke of Eichmond), and the
Marquis of Hamilton.
In any circumstances this departure of the King would
have had some effect on the progress of business in the
English Parliament. As it was, it helped to bring on an
interruption which was natural enough for other reasons.
It was now the heat of summer ; and again the Plague, then
an annual dread in England, was at work in the lanes and
alleys of the metropolis. In the third week of August there
were 610 deaths in the city, of which 131 were by plague
and 1 1 8 by smallpox.1 Among the recent victims to small-
pox had been the Earl of Bedford, the Liberal leader in the
Lords. He had died on the 9th of May. Several members
of the Commons had since then died of plague, and others
were in alarm, as living in infected houses. Moreover, apart
from plague and the unusual heat of the weather, — " this hot
season," as Milton calls it in one of his pamphlets, — some
rest after so long a session was beginning to be necessary.
For nine months they had been " making thunder and light-
ning," as Clarendon expresses it ; and, after forging thunder-
bolts so long, even Titans needed a respite. The King's
departure coinciding with these independent reasons for a
vacation, it was found, after he was gone, that the attendance
in the Peers dwindled to about twenty on the average, and
in the Commons to about 100. It became unavoidable, in
these circumstances, to arrange for a formal recess. The
chief difficulty was in the matter of the impeachment of
the thirteen Bishops. When the Lords discussed the
matter on the llth of August, the day after the King's
departure, the strong measure of the Commons seemed by
no means to their taste ; but on the 17th, after the Commons
had reinforced their impeachment by fresh charges, the Lords
acquiesced so far as to resolve that the thirteen must put in
1 Letter in S. P. 0., of one "Thomas Wiseman," dated Aug. 26, 1641.
1641.] PREPARATIONS FOR A RECESS. 273
answers, and that while their cause was pending they must
not vote in the House, nor even be present in it on any
occasion when their cause was in debate. Nothing else of
consequence prevented a recess. On the 18th Commissioners
were appointed by the two Houses to follow his Majesty
into Scotland, so as both to be in attendance upon him and
to act as honorary envoys to the Scottish Parliament. The
new Earl of Bedford (who, however, did not go) and Lord
Howard of Escrick were the Commissioners from the Lords ;
and Hampden, Nathaniel Fiennes, Sir William Armyn, and
Sir Philip Stapleton were the Commissioners from the Com-
mons. On the 2 Oth some formal orders were issued respecting
the disbanding of the English army in the north, and John
Rushworth, the assistant clerk of the Commons, was in-
structed to go to York, and see them executed. On the 27th
it was agreed that there should be a Recess of Parliament
from the 8th of September to the 20th of October.
Even after this agreement, it was with reluctance that the
Root-and-Branch members of the Commons were induced
to separate. One of their last acts was to offer some solace
to the Puritan expectations of the country for the postpone-
ment of the complete measures of Church-reformation which
had been promised. It took the form of certain orders of
the Commons, agreed to on the 1st of September, for the
regulation of public worship in all parishes, and also in all
cathedral churches, until such time as Parliament should
have reassembled. The churchwardens of every parish -
church or chapel, and the authorities of every cathedral
church or college-chapel, were to see to the arrangement of
the communion-table as it had been before the late inno-
vations ; all crucifixes, scandalous pictures, images of the
Virgin Mary, and tapers, candlesticks, and basins on the
communion-table, were to be removed ; bowing at the name
of Jesus, or in reverence at other times, was to be discon-
tinued ; sports and dancing on Sundays were to cease ; and
preaching on Sunday afternoons and at other times was to
be encouraged. To these Resolutions the Root-and-Branch
men would have added one allowing some alteration or option
VOL. ir T
274 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
in the use of the Liturgy ; but they were opposed in this
by Hyde and others, and outvoted by 5.5 to 37. The
Commons would also have had the Lords agree with them
in the resolutions they did pass. The Lords, however, declined
this, and even went back upon a previous order of theirs,
" that divine service should be performed as appointed by
several Acts of Parliament, and that all that disturbed that
wholesome order should be severely punished according to
the law." This was done in a thin House, six Lords out of
twenty present protesting. Effectively, however, the orders
of the Commons went forth as the injunctions of Parliament.
Let all men trust in the " good propositions and preparations "
which had been made, and which should be resumed as soon
as Parliament reassembled, and meanwhile let them " quietly
attend the Eeformation intended without any tumultuous
disturbance." Such were the parting words of the Com-
mons to their constituents.
Actually it was not till the 9th of September, or a day
later than had been intended, that the two Houses rose.
Each House left a committee of its members to meet every
Tuesday and Saturday, or oftener, for observation of affairs
during the recess. The Committee of the Lords consisted
of seventeen, with Lord Keeper Littleton as chairman ; the
Committee of the Commons of forty-seven, with Pym as
chairman. Sanitary regulations against the Plague in
London had not been neglected. In a series of such regu-
lations, one was that on the door of every infected house
there should be a large red cross, with the words " The
Lord have mercy on us!' l
SIX WEEKS OF LULL : VIEW OF THE STATE OF PARTIES.
The six weeks' Eecess in the autumn of 1641 (Sept. 9 —
Oct. 20) marks a distinct epoch in the history of the Long
Parliament.
i Lords and Commons Journals of Rushworth, IV. 361 — 376, and 385—
dates cited ; Parl. Hist. II. 901—912 ; 387 ; Baillie, I. 388 ; Clar. I. 231—234.
Sept. 1641.J STATE OF PARTIES. 275
Until that Recess, the Parliament had been borne on, as we
have seen, almost unanimously in many matters, in a career
of action and reform. Evidences,' however, were not wanting
that this common original impulse had spent itself, and that,
while a section of the members of both Houses, but especially
of the Commons, were still unsatisfied, many had begun to
consider whether reform had not been carried far enough
and the nation might not rest. It had been chiefly in the
course of the discussions of the Church question that this
formation of a Conservative body within the two Houses had
manifested itself. In the Lords, more conservative from the
first than the Commons, it had become evident that, on this
question, a large majority were disposed to stand still. Had
not the Bishops been humbled enough ? Had there not been
a sufficient investigation into past ecclesiastical delinquencies,
a sufficient castigation of the chief delinquents, and a sufficient
exhibition of the views of the English people and the English
Parliament as to the proper constitution of the Church for
the future ? Why not come to a peace on the basis of the
state of things now reached ? Why not retain Episcopacy
in England on some scheme in which Hall, Williams, and
Usher might agree, or at least agree to differ ? So thought,
and privately argued, the large majority of the Lords, their
feeling on this question really expressing the mood they had
attained respecting all questions. In the Commons, too,
there was a large body of a similar way of thinking. It was
not a majority, but it was a body so large as to run the
majority very hard, and to have hopes of becoming the
majority. Virtually, therefore, at the time of the Recess,
there were the elements of a powerful conservative party in
the Long Parliament. They were a conservative party, not
as desiring a restoration of the former state of things, but as
desiring to call a halt, and see a pleased King and the splen-
dours of an established Court once more in the heart of
England. And what better time could there be for such an
adjustment ? The Scots were back again in their own land.
Knxlaml was once more herself, freed alike from the necessary
evil of the Scottish army in the North, and from the presence
276 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
of Scottish Commissioners and preachers in London, import-
ing their crank Presbyterian notions into other people's
concerns ! True, something had been said in the Scottish
Treaty about endeavouring after a " unity of Religion "
between the two kingdoms ! But these were only words of
course. Let England settle her own affairs, religious and
other, according to her own likings and traditions ! Let this
sentiment prevail in the minds of Peers, and of members
of the House of Commons, during the Eecess ! Restored
once more to their families, finding themselves once more in
their country -mansions beside the portraits of their ancestors,
or walking once more in autumn-time in the quiet English
fields and lanes, and by the old parish-churches and parson-
ages, ought they not to cultivate, after so many months of
turmoil, the forgotten mood of repose ? If one's shoes were
always being mended, when could they be worn ? So, to be
always changing institutions was not the sole business of life ;
when institutions had been so far set right, ought not men to
live amidst them ? On the reassembling of Parliament after
the Recess, therefore, let there be a visible rallying round the
King on the basis of facts already accomplished !
Such, represented at its best, was the state of feeling that
had come upon many of the Parliament-men, and probably
upon a large part of the English people besides. But there
was still the Party of Movement, consisting of what seemed
to be an efficient majority in the Commons, and a minority of
some twenty or thirty among the Peers, backed by a large
portion of the nation, and above all by the citizens of
London. The motives which influenced them were of two
kinds. In the first place, they did not think that enough
had been accomplished. They desired farther reforms, which
were yet withheld. Above all, they were bent on a still
farther prosecution of the Church question, to the extirpation,
or nearly so, of all that had been yet known as Episcopacy in
England, and the setting up of a spiritual apparatus, if there
were to be any state-apparatus of the kind at all, on an
entirely new model. Aspirations and theories on this subject
were in possession of many of the most powerful minds, in
Sept. 1641.] STATE OF PARTIES. 277
and out of Parliament; and these aspirations and theories,
to a greater extent than was perceived then, were the positive
force of the Movement Party. Cromwell and the younger
Vane within Parliament, and Milton out of Parliament, may
be cited as representatives of this positive force or enthu-
siasm. But, among the then recognised practical heads
of the Movement Party, it was not, perhaps, so much this
craving for farther changes that was dominant. Pym, for
example, the generalissimo of the party, its matchless Parlia-
mentary leader, would have been personally content, up to
this moment, with a much more moderate adjustment of the
Episcopacy question than would have satisfied Cromwell, and
others on the back benches of the Commons. What influenced
Pym, and many more, was not so much the desire for farther
changes as the sense of the insecurity of what had been
accomplished, and the necessity, whether for the preservation
of that or for the attainment of more, of stronger guarantees
for the safety and permanency of that free agency of Parlia-
ments to which all yet done was owing. Were the relations
between the King and Parliament even now in a condition in
which England could wisely consent to leave them ? Even if
the controversy were with the best and most conscientious King
that ever lived, and surrounded with the most trustworthy
counsellors, would not guarantees be desirable that did not
yet exist ? And, as things were ! Here the feeling was
not the less strong because it could not publicly be spoken.
The character of Charles was well known. It was known
that whatever he had yielded he had yielded reluctantly,
and with a reservation that he might take it back when the
pressure was removed. Clarendon himself has acknowledged
that this principle actuated Charles, and was the secret of the
ease with which again and again he had seemed to reconcile
himself to inevitable concessions. But, long before Clarendon
had written of Charles and his actions, two kingdoms had found
out, accurately enough, the man they had to deal with. " Our
sweet Prince " the Scots called him, and had brought cannon
to bear upon the sweetness. " Our august Sovereign " the
English continued to style him, while the greater part of
278 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
them did not believe one word he said. It was this distrust
of Charles, in respect of what had already been wrung from
him, quite as much as any passion for fresh reforms, that
kept together that English Party of Progress which Pym
led. The liberties of England were not yet secure. At any
time, on the occurrence of any conjunction of circumstances
favourable to a reaction, all that had been done might be
undone. The concessions made by the King might be re-
voked ; the reforms enacted by Parliament might be annulled ;
the popular leaders in Parliament might be imprisoned or
brought to the scaffold ; the scattered harpies of the recent
system of things might return to their prey ; the country
might find itself again under a reign of revengeful Thorough.
Was the Kecess of Parliament in these circumstances to be
regarded as merely a holiday after finished work, a time for
cultivating the mood of repose ? Ought it not rather to be a
time of refreshment for work yet to be done, of recovery from
natural lassitude and fatigue ? When members of Parlia-
ment returned to town from their country-houses, and estates,
and constituencies, ought they not to come, like the giants of
old, reheartened for a continued conflict by fresh virtue from
their mother Earth ?
Not half so well do we know all this now as Charles
knew it then. He had been calculating on the arrival of
such a time, and now it had arrived. Should he be able
to manage the opportunity ? This depended, above all, on
the men who were in his councils, or whom he might now
be able to bring into his councils.
Since the beginning of the Long Parliament, when Strafford,
Laud, Cottington, Secretary Windebank, and Lord Keeper
Finch had been removed from his side, Charles had been
strangely circumstanced in the matter of counsellors. There
had remained nominally about him others of his older
ministers, such as Hamilton, Manchester, Arundel, Salisbury,
Pembroke, Dorset, Holland, Berkshire, and Newburgh, among
the Peers, and the elder Sir Henry Vane and Sir Thomas
Jermyn among the Commons. To these had been added, in
Sept 1641.] STATE OF PARTIES. 279
more recent times, but still before the meeting of the Parlia-
ment, such new counsellors as the young Duke of Richmond,
the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Newcastle, the
Earl of Lanark, and Lord Goring. It was with this nominal
Ministry, consisting partly of the wreck of his old Privy
Council and partly of Privy Councillors more recently
appointed, that Charles faced the difficulties of his first
encounter with the Parliament. Even then some of this
body, such as Northumberland, Salisbury, Pembroke, Hol-
land, and Sir Henry Vane, if not also Hamilton, had become
Parliamentarian in their sympathies, notwithstanding their
antecedents to the contrary. But the necessity of the time,
the unanimity of the Parliament from the first in favour of
a policy that should completely undo that of " Thorough,"
had forced on Charles the addition to his Council or Ministry
of men wholly unconnected with his past Government, and
representing avowedly the new mood of England. Thus,
almost on the same day in the winter of 1640-1, there had
been sworn in as members of the Privy Council the following
eight noblemen, all then popular leaders in the Lords, — the
Earl of Bedford, the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Bristol, the
Earl of Hertford, the Earl of Warwick, Viscount Saye and
Sele, Lord Savile, and Lord Kimbolton. Moreover, when,
to fill the place vacated by Lord Keeper Finch, Sir Edward
Littleton, member for Staffordshire, and Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas, was raised to the woolsack as Baron
Littleton (Dec. 1640), and when Attorney-General Sir John
Banks succeeded Littleton as Chief Justice, and his place as
Attorney-General was conferred on Sir Edward Herbert, till
then Solicitor-General, the person chosen for the Solicitor-
Generalship (Jan. 1640-1) was no less determined a Puritan
than Cromwell's gloomy-faced relative, the lawyer Oliver St.
John. To the list of persons so enumerated as, in the first
few months of the Long Parliament, surrounding the King as
Privy Councillors, or in official capacities which enabled him
to avail himself of their advice, may be added Mr. Edward
Nicholas, member for Newton, Hants, who had been Clerk
to the Privy Council under Secretary Windebank, and who,
280 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
since Windebank's flight, had performed many of the routine
duties of the Secretary's office.1
A motley Ministry this to be surrounding the King, ranging
as it did from such men of the old stamp as Arundel and
Dorset, who had sat in the Council with Laud and StrafTord
and often abetted them, to such men of the new extreme as
Lords Saye and Sele and Kimbolton and the lawyer St. John.
In virtue of its composition, one might describe it, in modern
language, as a Coalition Ministry ; but, in fact, it was no
efficient ministry at all in the sense of that or any other
now familiar designation. The real motive power lay in the
Parliament, and the real tug against that motive power lay
in the King's own mind ; and the nominal Privy Council and
Ministry were but a casual collection of persons, meeting the
King occasionally and performing routine duties round him,
but distracted in opposite directions and incapable of any
united policy. Only in one way could they have been con-
verted into a bond fide, Government ; and that was by the
King's frank acceptance of the new conditions in which he
found himself, his desisting from his tug against Parliament
and consenting to go along with it, and his proclamation of
the same to the country by giving public ascendency to
the popular or Parliamentary element in his Council, and
inducing the old leaven in it either to accept the new
policy, or to withdraw and become inactive. This, which
would have brought the Government into visible accord with
Parliament, would not have been difficult. The stiffest of the
old Councillors had certainly no such rooted opinion of their
own in favour of despotic ways as would have led them to
stand out for the system of Strafford and Laud after the King
himself had given it up. For a time, accordingly (it was
while Strafford's fate was undecided and there seemed a
chance of saving him), the King had actually been inclined
to some such experiment. A kind of recast of the Ministry
was then in contemplation. It was proposed that Bedford
i My authority for facts in this cillors and Ministers) is partly Claren-
paragraph (which, however, the reader don, Hist. pp. 78 — 80, pp. 84, 85, and
ought to connect retrospectively with partly Minutes of attendances at
our previous lists of Charles's Coun- Council Meetings in S. P. 0.
Sept. 1641.] STATE OF PARTIES. 281
should have the High Treasurership, resigned by Bishop
Juxon, and, with it, what we should now call the Premier-
ship ; Essex, Northumberland, Saye and Sele, and other
popular Peers, were to have important offices round Bedford ;
Pym was to be brought in as Chancellor of the Exchequer ;
Denzil Holies was to be joint Secretary of State with the
elder Vane, in Windebauk's place ; and some suitable post
was to be found for Hampden. The unexpected death of
Bedford, however (May 9, 1641), having taken all plausibility
out of this scheme so far as the King's purpose in it was to
save StrafFord's life, and the execution of Straffbrd having
taken away perhaps the only motive that would have recon-
ciled the King to a Ministry containing Pym and Hampden,
the project of a real Ministry headed by the Parliamentary
leaders of both Houses was never carried out. Certain mild
ministerial changes were indeed effected in May 1641, im-
mediately after Stratford's death. Juxon having resigned the
High Treasurership, that great office was not conferred on any
one peer, but was vested in a Commission of five, consisting
of Lord Keeper Littleton, Lord Privy Seal Manchester, Lord
Chief Justice Banks, Lord Newburgh, and Secretary Vane.
Essex about the same time was made Lord Chamberlain
instead of Pembroke, who had become disagreeable to the
King ; and the Mastership of the Wards, resigned by Cot-
tington, was conferred on Saye and Sele. Two other pro-
motions, in the same month of May 1641, deserve even
more particular notice. The loyal Earl of Newcastle having
obtained the King's reluctant consent to his resignation of
the post of Governor to the Prince of Wales, the Earl of
Hertford was appointed his successor in that post, and was
at the same time created a Marquis ; and, as a fit successor
to Straffbrd in the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, there was
brought over from France, where he had long been Ambas-
sador, the experienced and not unpopular Earl of Leicester.
These changes, all dating from May 1641, somewhat modi-
fied the constitution of Charles's nominal Ministry, but did
not essentially alter its character. From May, onwards
through June and July, and into August, Charles had had
282 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
to persevere very much as he had done in the earlier months
of the Parliament after Laud and Strafford had been struck
from his side, — surrounded, that is, by a motley body of
councillors and ministers, composed partly of men in sym-
pathy with Parliament and pledged to its proceedings, partly
of men overawed by Parliament and by the ruin of the late
chiefs of " Thorough " on evidence supplied by their fellow-
councillors, and consequently, even if they were disposed to
aid Charles in a conservative policy, not daring to ventilate
any such policy openly at the Council-board. In these
circumstances, Charles had to retain his policy mainly in his
own breast. He became his own chief man of business,
with his clever and intriguing Queen, whose great influence
over him had long been matter of complaint, as his chief
woman of business. Whoever, indeed, would conceive at its
very centre the policy that began, in May — Aug. 1641, to be
opposed to that of the Parliament, and that led to so much
that followed, must imagine not a regular Council-board at
which the King sat with any number of Ministers around
him, but the King and Queen Henrietta Maria in privacy
talking over affairs. Both were of one mind as to the utter
detestability of Parliament and the necessity of thwarting
it by any means, or of yielding to it only in order to get the
better of it sooner or later ; but the one nursed his dislike
and anger with a pompous, sombre tenacity of dignity, and
the other uttered it more flashingly, in French or broken
English, with more of quick suggestion of ways and means,
and sometimes with a flout at her lord's weakness.
The differences in Parliament on the Church question, and
the evident formation in both Houses (June — Aug. 1641) of
a party that would make a stand for a conservative policy on
that question, had, we repeat, opened up a new prospect for
Charles and Henrietta Maria. Here at last was the lever by
which they might work for all their ends ! How they were
to work it was obvious. Those declared Conservatives on the
Church question in the two Houses were to be looked out
and counted up, and, whatever they had been or done on
other questions, such as Stafford's trial, were to be regarded
Sept. 1641.] STATE OP PARTIES. 283
as now the King's men, or convertible into the King's men ;
and from among their chiefs were to be selected a kind of
secret or unaccredited Cabinet, distinct from the nominal
Council and Ministry, though including the picked men of
that body. (1) Within the nominal Council and Ministry
there were men on whom the King might rely on grounds
more personal and peculiar than any supplied by the Church
question, and others whom the Church question had made
decidedly or presumably his. Foremost in the former class
was, undoubtedly, the King's kinsman, the young Duke of
Richmond and Lennox, whose chivalrous personal fidelity
gave him now that place in the King's intimacy which had
formerly been held by Hamilton. In the same class of King's
men requiring no inspiration from the Church question were
Arundel, Dorset, Newburgh, Newcastle, Goring, and Jermyn,
and perhaps others. By the month of August, however, I
am inclined to think, the Church question or other occasions
had made the King sure also of the following persons, — some
of whom had not special obligations to him of very long
duration, and had even Parliamentarian associations : the
Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of Bristol, Lord Keeper Little-
ton, Chief Justice Banks, Attorney-General Herbert, and the
industrious Clerk of the Council, Mr. Edward Nicholas.
(2) With one or two exceptions, however, the men named were
not men of the exact type that the King at the moment
wanted. They were mostly grave and considerate persons,
who, though any secret of the King's would have been safe
with them, would have reasoned with him against any stroke
of polipy which they thought unwise or dangerous. They
were Conservatives rather than Counter- Revolutionists ; and
what the King wanted was a Counter-Revolutionist, or a
few such, who would undertake the management of the
Conservatism that had declared itself, and convert it, even
by violence, into a Counter- Revolution. The young Duke of
Ki'-hmond, I fancy, was the readiest for such an enterprise
of all the Councillors named; but Charles had found a
still readier agent for it out of the Council This was
the young, handsome, and brilliant Lord Digby, eldest son
284 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
of the Earl of Bristol. We have seen with what hopes
this young orator had entered the Commons as member
for Dorsetshire, how he had been regarded as a likely
leader of the popular party, how he had joined in the
attack against Episcopacy but still had argued against
its complete extinction, and how, finally, he had distin-
guished himself by heading that minority of fifty-nine
who, though condemning Strafford and consenting to his
punishment, voted for a punishment short of death. Erom
that moment the King could not fail to have his eyes on
Digby ; and, when Digby, less comfortable in the Commons
since his speech and vote for Strafford's life, went secretly
to the King and offered his services, they were graciously
accepted. On the 9th of June 1641, he was raised to the
Upper House, still as Lord Digby, but with a peerage in that
name. From that moment the King and the Queen had an
agent on whom they might depend, and whose devices in
their behalf were less likely to err by defect and slowness
than by excess and rashness.1
The young Duke of Eichmond and young Lord Digby, I
should say, were, in August 1641, the two persons who, of
all those of mark about Charles in London, were most
in the secret of his counsels, and the readiest to go all
lengths. Conceive these two persons, with others about the
Household, such as Mr. Henry Percy, brother of the Earl of
Northumberland, and member for that county, and add such
" Army -men," also members of Parliament, as Colonel Wilmot,
Colonel Ashburnham, Colonel Pollard, and Colonel George
Goring (most of them concerned in the Army-Plot, of the
preceding May for Strafford's release, but now again free
from that scrape) ; and you will have in your fancy what I
will call the English group of absolute Counter-Eevolu-
tionists, as distinct from the general body of English Con-
servatives. Now, Charles's real policy being the conversion
of the aggregate English Conservatism of all kinds into clear
reaction or Counter-Eevolution, these, at the time of his
journey to Scotland, were his most trusted secret function-
i Clarendon 93 and 137, 138 (Hist.) and 938 et seq. (Life).
Sept. 1641.] STATE OF PARTIES. 285
aries left behind in England But (and here I must use
italics) at the other end of tlie island there was already a
Scottish group of similar persons, and tlwse two groups of
Counter -Revolutionists, the English and the Scottish, were
already in connexion. What if Charles's visit to Scotland
had its secret motive in that connexion ?
Whatever may have been Charles's precise hopes from his
Scottish journey, his behaviour in London on the eve of that
journey did not reveal those hopes, but only a natural desire
to establish a good understanding, before he went, with such
of the new Parliamentary Conservatives as were most likely
to be useful during his absence and after his return. There
was one man in the Upper House, for example, with whom
it was necessary that the King should now be on good
terms. This was Williams. Almost the only Bishop in the
House who had latitude given him by both parties, Williams,
who could never be a nobody, had made the Church ques-
tion in the Lords his own. His draft of a Limited Epi-
scopacy scheme, which, while it would retain the Bishops
in Parliament, should alter the entire status and powers of
their office, and popularize the whole constitution of the
Church, must, in itself, have been wormwood to Charles ; but
then, as compared with the Root-and- Branch Bill in the
Commons, which it was meant to counteract, it was an inter-
position for good. In the existing temper of the two Houses,
or perhaps of the Lords themselves, if a Root-and-Branch
Bill were to be avoided, it could only be by a compromise
like that of Williams. Williams, therefore, was a man whom
it might be well to humour, — the rather because that Bill of
Impeachment which the Commons had sent up to the Lords
(Aug. 4) against thirteen of the Bishops personally, for their
share in the illegal Canons of 1640, threatened to leave no
prelates in the House save Williams and one or two more.
Accordingly, there is proof that, before the King went to
Scotland, he had given a gleam of his countenance again to
ili.- I iishop of Lincoln.— —If it was doubtful whether Bishop
Williams could do the King's cause any good, there was no
doubt that the man in the Commons on whom at the same
286 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
time the King fixed his eyes was one pre-eminently fit. Mr.
Edward Hyde, one of the members for Saltash, must have
been known to the King by name from the very beginning
of the Parliament. He had not been known favourably at
first ; for who had been more zealous against abuses in Church
and State, or more resolute in the prosecution of Strafford ?
Digby, however, who knew Hyde intimately, had told the
King more about him, and Hyde's own opposition to the
prevalent feeling in the House on the Church question had
done the rest. When Deering's unexpected Root-and-Branch
Bill had passed the second reading and been referred to a
committee of the whole House (June and July 1641), Hyde,
as a Chairman of Committee, had done more to obstruct the
business than could have been supposed possible. He dwells
with especial satisfaction on this in his History,1 because the
recollection was connected in his mind with what followed.
This he must tell in his own words : " While things were
" thus depending," he says, " one morning when there was a
" conference with the Lords, and so the House adjourned, Mr.
" Hyde being walking in the House, Mr. Peircy, brother to
" the Earl of Northumberland, being a member of the House,
" came to him, and told him that the King would speak with
" him and would have him that afternoon to come to him.
" He answered he believed it was some mistake, for that he
" had not the honour to be known to the King, and that
" there was another of the same name of the House [Mr.
" Serjeant Hyde, member for Salisbury]. Mr. Peircy assured
" him he was the man ; and so it was agreed that at such
" an hour in the evening he should call on him at his
" chamber ; which he did, and was by him conducted into
" the gallery, and so into the square room, where he stayed
" till the other went to the King ; who in a very short time
" came thither, attended only by Mr. Peircy, who, as soon as
" Mr. Hyde had kissed his Majesty's hand, withdrew. The
" King told him ' that he heard from all hands how much
" ' he was beholden to him ; and that, when all his servants
" ' in the House of Commons either neglected his service or
i Clarendon, Hist. p. 110.
1641.] THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 287
" ' could not appear usefully in it, he took all occasions to
" ' do him service ; for which he thought fit to give him his
" ' own thanks, and to assure him that he would remember
" ' it to his advantage.' He took notice of his affection to
•' the Church, for which, he said, ' he thanked him more than
" for all. the rest '; which the other acknowledged with the
" duty that became him, and said, ' he was very happy that
" ' his Majesty was pleased with what he did ; but, if he
" ' had commanded him to have withdrawn his affection and
" ' reverence for the Church, he would not have obeyed him ' ;
" which his Majesty said made him love him the better.
" Then he discoursed of the passion of the House, and of the
" P.ill then brought in against Episcopacy; and asked him
" ' whether he thought they would be able to carry it ? ' to
" which he answered, he ' believed they could not, at least
" ' that it would be very long first.' ' Nay,' replied the King ;
" ' if you will look to it that they do not carry it before I go
" ' for Scotland, which will be at such a time, when the
" ' armies shall be disbanded, I will undertake for the Church
" ' after that time.' ' Why, then,' said the other, ' by the grace
" ' of God, it will not be in much danger ' ; with which the
" King was well pleased, and dismissed him with very gra-
" cious expressions. And this was the first introduction
" of him to the King's taking notice of him." l
THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND : ITS INCIDENTS.
A regular meeting annually of the General Assembly of
the Kirk was one of the most prized of the benefits which
the Scots had won by their revolution. When Charles
announced his intention of leaving London, such a General
Assembly (the fourth in the series of which the great one in
Glasgow had been the first) was sitting in Edinburgh, whither
it had been removed from St. Andrews. The Commissioner
of the King in this Assembly was the Earl of Weinyss ; the
Moderator was Alexander Henderson. He had not been
chosen without a protest by some against his election a
i Clarendon, p. 987 (Life).
288 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
second time to the presidency, at a season when the doctrine
of Presbyterian parity was so important.
Henderson, it is to be remembered, was fresh from his
seven months of residence in London in company with
Baillie and others. The influence of this fact was apparent
in the proceedings of the Assembly over which he presided.
One proposition of Henderson's, for example, was that steps
should be taken for bringing back to Scotland, and providing
with a situation suitable to his deserts, " Mr. Thomas Young
the author of Dies Dominica, and of the Smectymnuus for the
most part." This proposition was not to take effect, and
Milton's old tutor was to remain in England. By far the
most important part of the Assembly's proceedings, however,
grew out of a letter which Henderson had brought with him
from England, addressed to the Assembly by "a number
of their gracious brethren of the ministry at London and
about it," including, of course, Young and the other Smec-
tymnuans. While congratulating the Scottish clergy on
their " happy proceedings " hitherto, and expressing a hope
that the Scottish Church Discipline would soon be established
in England, the letter brought to the notice of the Assembly
a very important difference of opinion which had begun to
manifest itself among the English Eoot-and-Branch men on
this very subject. "Almighty God having now, of his
" infinite goodness," said the letter, " raised our hopes of
" removing this yoke of Episcopacy under which we have so
" long groaned, sundry other forms of Church-government are
" by sundry sorts of men projected to be set up in the room
" thereof: one of which, among others, is of some brethren
" that hold the whole power of Church-government, and all
" acts thereunto appertaining, as election, ordination, and
" deposition of officers, with admission, excommunication, and
" absolution of members, are by Divine ordinance, in foro
" externo, to be decreed by the most voices in and of every par-
" ticular congregation ; which, say they, is the utmost bound
" of a particular church endued with the power of govern-
" ment, and only some formalities of solemn execution to be
" reserved to the officers as the servants of the said church,
1641.] THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 289
" if they have any, and, if none, then to be perform. .1
" by some other members, not in office, whom the church
" shall appoint thereunto ; and that every of the said par-
" ticular congregations, whether they consist of few or
" many members and be furnished with officers or not, law-
" fully may and ought to transact, determine and execute,
" all matters pertaining to the government of themselves
" amongst and within themselves, without any authorita-
" tive (though not consultatory) concurrence or interposition
" of any other persons or churches whatsoever ; condemning
" all imperative and decisive power of Classes, or com-
" pound Presbyteries and Synods, as a mere usurpation."
Now, as the Churches of England and Scotland seemed to be
"embarked in the same bottom, to sink and swim together,"
the English writers of the letter were anxious to have the
best advice of the venerable Assembly of their Scottish
brethren on this very point. They desired this the rather
because it was asserted that the same views of Congrega-
tionalism or Independency had broken out among the Scots,
and that even some eminent ministers of the Kirk were
inclined to them. There is no doubt that the English
ministers here pointed to certain discussions which had been
going on in Scotland as to " the lilxjrty of prophesying," or
the right of the unordained laity to associate themselves and
meet together for prayer, preaching, and mutual spiritual
encouragement, apart from the regular worship of the parish
church, and without the supervision of their pastors. The
matter had occasioned considerable perplexity in the two
preceding Assemblies of 1639 and 1640; and it had re-
quired all Henderson's judgment and weight to arrange a
compromise. In these recent discussions in Scotland the
Congregational ists or Brownists among the Jtoot-and-Branch
men in Kn^laml had iv«.-nised the fermentation of views
akin to their own. lmltv.1, it was announced by Henderson
that Messrs. Dickson and Cant \\viv chiefly referred to in the
letter of the English ministers as of Congregationalist tenden-
cies. These brethren were at once eager to clear themselves
from tin- imputation : " none in all the Assembly more against
VOL. II U
290 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Independency than these two," says Baillie. The subject
having been discussed more at large by the whole Assembly,
it appeared that they were unanimous against Independency,
and Henderson was instructed to write in that sense to
the English ministers. " Our unanimous judgment and
" uniform practice," said this answer, "is that, according
" to the order of the Keformed Kirks and the ordinance
" of God in his Word, not only the solemn execution
" of ecclesiastical power and authority, but the whole acts
" and exercise thereof, do properly belong to the officers
" of the Kirk, yet so that, in matters of chief importance,
" the tacit consent of the congregation be had before their
" decrees and sentences receive final execution, and that the
" officers of a particular congregation may not exercise this
" power independently, but with subordination unto greater
" Presbyteries, and Synods provincial and national."- — Let
the reader do all he can to bear in mind this correspondence
in the autumn of 1641 between the Puritan ministers of
London and the General Assembly of the Scottish Kirk then
sitting in Edinburgh. The subject was to be of immense
moment in the years that were coming.
The Assembly having thus acquitted itself on the main
subject of the communication made to it by the English
Puritan ministers, there was a hearty reciprocation of the
desire which the English brethren had expressed for a uni-
formity of Religion and Church-government between the two
countries. Nay, with views towards this great end, " a
notable motion " was made by Henderson. It was a motion
for " drawing up a Confession of Faith, a Catechism, a Direct-
ory for all the parts of the Public Worship, and a platform
of Government, wherein possibly England and we might
agree." Baillie adds that " all did approve," and that the
burden of the labour was forthwith " laid on the back of the
mover," i.e. on Henderson. He was to take help of such as
he liked, and was to be allowed as much leisure from parish
duty as he might find necessary. For there was at this time
some consternation in Edinburgh on account of his com-
plaining of overwork and desiring to leave his city-charge
1641.] THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND. I".' 1
for some quiet country-parish. He was induced to remain in
harness.1
The Assembly was just over, after its fortnight of such
work (July 27 — Aug. 9), when the King arrived in Edinburgh
(Aug. 14). His business was more witli the Scottish Par-
liament, which had met on the 15th of July, under the
continued presidency of Lord Burleigh. It formed a House
of 145 members in all ; of whom 39 were nobles, 49 lairds or
lesser barons, and 57 representatives of burghs: churchmen
ln'ing still quite excluded. It is of interest in the history
of Kdinburgh that this Scottish Parliament of 1641 was the
first of real importance that sat in the fine new Parliament
House which the Edinburgh people had recently got ready,
after eight years of labour and expense, in the sacred old
site in the High Street, at the back of St. Giles's church.
The neighbourhood is now considerably changed, and Scottish
Parliaments are things of the far past ; but the name " Parlia-
ment House " still clings to the building, and the spacious
oak-roofed hall which was actually the place of the meetings
of the Parliaments is still one of the characteristic loci of
Edinburgh, being the ante-room to all the law-courts, where
the lawyers promenade in their wigs and gowns all day long,
and their clients and other acquaintances lounge, and the
buzz of Edinburgh gossip is loudest and most authoritative.
Cluse l>y, in the ground outside, which once formed the church-
yard of St. Giles's, but has long since been levelled, paved,
and cloistered, is the grave of John Knox.2
To understand matters, we must here look back a
little : — For more than a year the government of Scot-
land had been exercised by that Committee of Estates
1 Baillie, I. 354—377 ; 8toven*on, Aug. 1639 (autt, p. 122). But that Par-
468—473 ; and Auto of the Scottish liamunt liud txxm frustrated ; it* rea»-
A«embly of 1641. tumbling in Juno 1640 was brief (anil,
2 Halfmir'x " Amuile* <>f Scotland," ]>. 136) ; and 8ulwo|uont meetingi of
III. 1 -' ,"/. : M. .it 1, ,!,.!'- Hi-t. »f K'liii thu K-tatos in tho new hull had DMA
Imiyh (17;>:i), |.j». 185, 186. Tho new for the inoro form of adjournment or
Parliament HI. a-..- wa- actually first prorogation.
u-.-'i l.y tli.- 1'arli mi. lit which met in
292 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
which we saw appointed in June 1640, just before Leslie's
march into England (see ante, p. 136). It consisted of forty
persons : viz. twelve nobles (the Earls of Rothes, Montrose,
Cassilis, Wigton, Dunfermline, and Lothian, and Lords
Lindsay, Balmerino, Cupar, Burleigh, Napier, and Lower) ;
twelve lairds or lesser barons ; twelve burgesses ; and four
Judges of Session. Associated with the Committee by special
appointment, as supernumerary or consulting member, was
Johnstone of Warns ton. In the list of the nobles in the
Committee, it will be observed, two names are conspicu-
ously wanting, — that of Lord Loudoun and that of the Earl
of Argyle. Loudoun was not put on the Committee for
the very good reason that, when it was appointed, he was a
prisoner in the Tower and in danger of his neck. The
omission of Argyle's name at the same time may have been
owing partly to the fact that there had been assigned to him
the independent charge of the Highlands, from Argyleshire
to Angus, with watch against a possible invasion from
Ireland while Leslie's army was in the South. But there was
a profounder reason for the omission. Argyle was then so
great a man in Scotland that to put him on the Committee
was superfluous. " He was major potestas, and, though
" not formally a member, yet all knew that it was his
" influence that gave being, life, and motion to those new-
" modelled governors." And, as he thus governed through
and over the Committee of Estates from the first, so
the course of events had thrown more and more of the
management visibly into his hands. The Committee had
been broken into two Sub-Committees, one accompanying
Leslie and the army into England, and the other remaining
in Edinburgh ; and, after the war was at an end, the reunion
of the body had been prevented by the necessity that some
of its members should continue with Leslie and the army
about Newcastle, and, farther, by the necessity of detaching
nine of the members, including Rothes and Dunfermline, to
reside in London as Commissioners for the Treaty. Whatever
dozen or more of the nobles, lairds, and burgesses composing
the Committee might be at any one time in Edinburgh
1641. J TIIK KIXc's VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 293
to form a quorum, the paramount power was always in
tin- hands of him whom his fellow-countrymen of the Low-
lands knew as the grave Calvinistic Earl, and whom his
Celtic subjects worshipped as Maccallummore, or feared as
< 1 i 1 k-spie Grumach. Of course there were jealousies. Strange
rumours began to tye emulated. Were they not calling him
" King Campbell " in some parts of the Lowlands ? Nay, had
not Gaelic songs been heard on moonlight nights on the lips
of Highland lochs, in which shadowy Highland boatmen with
foxy faces .confided to each other that Charles Stuart was to
rule no more, but their own chief was to " take gear from the
Sassenach and cry King at Whitsunday " ? What all this
really meant was that Argyle was the fittest man to be the
aristocratic head of such a thoroughly Presbyterian govern-
ment of the Scotland of that day as might have Henderson
for its chief clerical intellect and Johnstone of Warriston for
its working Secretary of State.1
Every Ciesar has his Pompey. Who can pronounce even
now without some emotion the name of James Graham, the
young Earl of Montrose ? Our glimpses of him hitherto
have been but vague and occasional. We have seen him
when, on his return from his travels to his native land and
estates, and to the young wife whom he had married when
only a boy, — Magdalene Carnegie, daughter of the Earl of
Southesk, — he Was welcomed into the ranks of the Cove-
nanters, and plunged into the career which the revolt against
Charles and the Bishops opened up for him. We have seen
him as a young chief among the Covenanters from that time
forward, sharing conspicuously in all their counsels and in
all their acts. We have seen him scourging the Aberdonians
once and again in the name of the Covenant; nominated as
one of the Committee of Estates ; accompanying Leslie in his
expedition into England ; and signalizing himself in that
expedition as the first man in the Scottish army to cross the
Tweed and plant an invading foot on English soil. With all
this, however, there had been an element of restlessness in
him which puzzled the Covenanters. "James," his friend
i Actaof Parl. of Scotland, V. 309—311 ; Nnpior'n Life of Monirow, T. 261 etteq.
294 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Rothes had said to him on one occasion, when he was eager
to see and be seen in a crowd assembled in the High Street
of Edinburgh for an Anti-Episcopal protestation, " you will
never be at rest till you are lifted up above your fellows in
a tow (rope)." He was always " hard to be guided," says
Baillie. And no wonder. He had joined the Covenanting
movement in a fit of patriotic enthusiasm ; but, essentially,
there was as little of the Presbyterian in him as in any one
then living within the realm of Presbytery. His mind was
rather in a state of clear Pagan excitement, full of admira-
tion for classic heroes like those of Plutarch, and with flash-
ing visions of some career like theirs, splendid in war or
politics. While going about in his teens over his estates, a
brilliant young Earl, with a retinue of gamekeepers and
pipers, he had written scraps of verse, some of which are yet
preserved. On his copy of Caesar's Commmentaries was
this distich : —
" Though Cesar's paragon I cannot be,
Yet shall I soar in thoughts as high as lie ; "
and on his copy of Quintus Cur tins this : —
" As Philip's noble son did still disdain
All but the dear applause of merited fame,
And nothing harboured in that lofty brain
But how to conquer an eternal name,
80 great attempts, heroic ventures, shall
Advance my fortune, or renown my fall."
That this ambitious young soul, Pagan and Plutarchian
rather than Christian or Presbyterian in his ideal of life, could
remain permanently associated with the Presbyterian majority
of his countrymen was impossible. It would be a mistake
to suppose that there were not other nobles and lairds who,
though belonging, like Montrose, to the Presbyterian move-
ment, and on good terms with Henderson, Dickson, and
others of the leading clergy, were far enough from being in-
clined to give their own days and nights wholly to Calvinism.
But, while most such were content to let matters go on in the
course that had been begun, it had become a secret resolution
1641.J THK KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 295
with Montrose to free himself from the connexions he had
1'nniK'd, and, if possible, to carry others along with him. In
other words, he had conceived the notion of a government for
Scotland which, while there should be no going back in it
into the unpopular Episcopal system abolished by the recent
revolution, should yet be conservative as compared with that
which the Presbyterians were setting up. It seems probable
that some of his views in this direction had been originally
derived from his brother-in-law, Lord Napier, the son of
Napier of the Logarithms. In this man, with some talent of
his own, there was a good deal of that logarithmic blood, in-
ducing to pecidiar views of affairs, and to abundant and very
combative expression of them with the pen, which has flowed
since, and often with greater genius, in all bearing the name of
Napier. Papers which he left behind him prove that, while
he was a member of the Scottish Privy Council, he had been
strongly opposed to the ascendency of the Bishops and to
their violent policy in introducing the Service Book ; but he
found himself hardly more at ease as a member of the new
Government which the Revolution had brought in. As he
was by this time a veteran, having been a Privy Councillor
since 1615, his influence over Montrose, who was not only his
brother-in-law, but had been under his guardianship before
attaining his majority, may have been considerable.1
Whether influenced originally by Napier or not, Montrose
had for more than a year been pursuing a policy diverging
from that of Argyle and his adherents. Even while he was
serving gallantly in Leslie's army he had been in secret
correspondence with the King. The discovery of this
correspondence by his colleagues had led to a public
accusation of him by Argyle at Leslie's table, and would
have perhaps led to his trial by court-martial but for the
prudent anxiety of Leslie and the other leaders to avoid such
1 Baillie's scattered references in Vol. in this lxx>k, one must acknowledge its
I., .iixl Appendix of Documents in Vol. frequent picturottquoneftH, its umwual
II. pp. 4o7 ft M»I. ; Clar. I. 235. 236; enoryy, and also the richness and in-
but especially Mr. Mark Napier'* Life torost of the material limmrht toother
of Monti-one (I. 60, 218—279, and in in it for the illustration of Montroao's
other places). Whatever one may think Life and the hixtory of the period.
<>f Mr. Ntipicr'N extremely violent views
296 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
a scandal. Then, in November 1640, there had followed
the discovery of a more formidable action on the part of
Montrose. This was the formation, before the march of the
army into England, of a Band or League, called " The Band
of Cumbernauld," by which he and nineteen other Scottish
nobles or lairds, including the Earl Marischal and Lord
Almont, had bound themselves by a Covenant, subsidiary to
the main one, to withstand what they called " the particular
and indirect practicking of a few " in the affairs of the nation.
Satisfied with the discovery of this secret association, and
with the profession of most of the Banders, including Almont,
that they had done foolishly and rashly in joining it, Argyle
and his adherents had taken no farther steps in the matter,
and had renewed friendly relations with some of them.
But Montrose was neither to be won over nor terrified. All
through the winter of 1640-41 and the following spring
his tongue had been busy against the Argyle party, now in
the Scottish army at Newcastle and within Leslie's hearing,
now on his own estates in Angus or in Perthshire, and again
in his lodgings in the Canongate in Edinburgh, or at Napier's
mansion of Merchiston in the vicinity of the city. In
looking at that fine old turreted mansion, still in good pre-
servation, in a southern suburb of Edinburgh, one sees not
only the original seat of Napier of the Logarithms, but also
the chief scene of certain important deliberations between
Montrose and his friends in the winter of 1640-41. They
issued in what I will take the liberty of calling the Mer-
chiston .House Compact. Of this compact, besides Montrose
and Napier, were Sir George Stirling of Keir, a colleague of
both on the Committee of Estates, and doubly related to Napier
as his nephew and son-in-law, and Sir Archibald Stewart of
Blackball, one of the Lords of Session.
Much of their meditations, at least of those of Montrose
and Napier, was expressed in writing. One remarkable essay
of Montrose's, written at this time, in the form of a Letter to
a Friend (possibly Drummond the poet), still remains and has
recently been published. It is curious, as exhibiting young
Montrose in the character of a political idealist. It is
1641.] II IK KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 297
throughout a politico-philosophical assertion of the principle
of Authority as co-filial with the principle of Liberty in the
conduct of Suites, and this in a style of abstract Scottish
reasoning which marks a characteristic, or perhaps national,
difference between M<>nt rose's conservatism and that of the
English Strafford. In all States, argues the Essayist, there is
an inherent collective sovereignty, or will, not lodged in the
individual wills of the members or of the majority of them,
and which yet ought not to be mere military chieftainship
nor any form of " arbitrary and despotic power." The func-
tions of this true governing will, the essential " points " of
this sovereignty, whether it is lodged " in the person of a
monarch, or in a few principal persons, or in the estates of
the people," are " to make laws, to create principal officers, to
make peace and war, to give grace to men condemned by law,
and to be the last to whom appellation is made." These
functions are " inalienable, indivisible, incommunicable "; they
" belong to the sovereign power primitively in all govern-
ments " ; and they " cannot subsist in a body of individuities."
After thus asserting an a jrriwi theory of government, the
Essay glances vaguely at the application the writer would
make of the theory to the state of Scotland. The re-estab-
lishment of a proper relation between the Crown and the
Estates was the true problem. As it was, all was going into
confusion ; " seditious preachers " were becoming the popular
guides ; and " vultures and tigers " in the persons of ambitious
nobles were making the body-politic their prey. Aigyle is
not named ; but it is hinted that the kingdom is likely to fall
into the hands of some such single person, who will be
obliged, of necessity, to establish a tyranny. An appeal is
made to the various classes of the community to help in re-
establishing the true national sovereignty by bringing about
restored relations, in the first place, between the King and the
rarlianu'iit. It might be difficult to gather from the Essay
the exact practical means to this end which the writer contem-
I'lau-d, were it not for a comment found in one of Napier's
preserved jottings respecting the history of the Merchiston
House Compact. " The Earl of Montrose," he says, " Lord
298 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" Napier, Sir George Stirling of Keir, and Sir Archibald
" Stewart of Blackball, knights, having occasion to meet often,
" did then deplore the hard estate the country was in. ...
" These sensible evils begot in them thoughts of a remedy.
" The best, they thought, was that, if his Majesty would be
" pleased to come in person to Scotland and give his people
" satisfaction in point of religion and just liberties, he should
" thereby settle his own authority." Here, in fact, is one ex-
planation of Charles's otherwise inexplicable determination to
visit Scotland in the autumn of 1 6 4 1 . A secret correspondence
had been begun with him by Montrose and Napier through
the medium of the Duke of Eichmond, and it was in conse-
quence of this correspondence that Charles, as early as May,
had begun at least to meditate a journey to the north. The
plan, doubtless, was that Montrose, in his place in Parliament,
with the King present to countenance him, should openly
attack Argyle.1
A sudden explosion of the Plot and its ramifications had
not only rendered its execution impossible, but had brought
Montrose and his friends into a condition in which they
could be of no use to Charles for some time to come. Among
Montrose's reckless speeches through the country had been
one or two to clergymen and other private persons in Perth-
shire, revealing the nature of the charges he was to bring
against Argyle. They were to the effect that Argyle had
spoken of a possible deposition of the King, to be followed
by a Dictatorship, or by the division of the country
into three great military cantonments to be governed by
a triumvirate. These speeches of Montrose, having been
repeated from mouth to mouth, had at last reached the
Committee of Estates. Montrose, on being called to answer
for them (May 27), boldly acknowledged them to Argyle's
face, and gave as his chief authority a certain Mr. John
Stewart of Ladywell, Commissary of Dunkeld. Stewart, on
being called before the Committee (May 31), affirmed all
1 Baillie, II. 468, 469 ; Napier's Mont- Rev. Robert Wodrow in the Advocates'
rose, I. 280—289 (where Montrose's Library, Edinburgh), also 295-6, 311—
Essay is given from a transcript by the 316, &c.
1641.] THK KING'S VJSIT TO SCOTLAM' 299
that li<- had told Montrose, said he had himself heard
the treasonable talk of Argyle at a place called the Ford
of Lyon about twelve months before, and drew up his
charges on a paper which he signed. As Argyle indig-
nantly gave them the lie on oath, and no testimony could
be brought forward by Montrose except that Of Mr. Stewart
of Ladywell, the brunt of the storm had to be borne by that
gentleman. He stood in one of two characters. Either
he was the prime witness in a charge of high treason against
Argyle, or he was himself liable to the penalties of the
crime which the Scottish Law named " leasing-making," i.e.
the diffusion of false rumours to cause discord between
the King and his subjects. It was in the latter character,
with the option of converting it into the other, that he was
committed to the custody of Edinburgh Castle. He had been
there but a few days when his courage gave way. He wrote
in most abject terms to Argyle, entreating an interview ; and
the result was that he confessed to several persons appointed
to visit him with Argyle (who declined seeing him privately)
that he had wrested words which he had heard Argyle say
at the Ford of Lyon from their true general import into a
special and treasonable one, through a " prejudicate opinion
of his lordship." So much for Mr. Stewart of Ladywell ;
whose arrest might not have involved any immediate conse-
quences to Montrose and his Merchiston House associates
but for a farther discovery. Stewart had admitted that, by
the advice of Montrose, Napier, and the knights of Kcir and
Blackball, a copy of his charges against Argyle had been
forwarded to Court, and that the bearer was a Colonel Walter
Stewart This led to the waylaying of the Colonel on his
return journey from England (June 4), and there were found
on him letters and papers of a very compromising nature.
Concealed in his saddle was one letter from the King to
Montrose announcing his intention of visiting Scotland ; there
were documents conferring a post and a pension on Mr. Com-
missary Stewart ; and there was a set of queer notes of the
Colonel's own, in a kind of cipher, containing mysterious
allusions to "A. B.C.," "the Serpent," "the Dromedary,"
300 LIFE OF MILTON ANP HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" Genero," " the Elephant," &c. The Colonel, thereupon,
confessed, like his namesake the Commissary. He had been
for some time the agent of Montrose and his Merchiston
friends, taking letters to Court from them, addressed to the
Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Traquair, and bringing
back answers. The plan was that the King should come
to Scotland, and then that an attack should be made on
Argyle in Parliament, which should also blast the character
of the Marquis of Hamilton. The symbols in the notes had
specific meanings. " Genero " meant Montrose, " the Drome-
dary " Argyle, " the Elephant " Hamilton, &c. Here were
grounds enough for the arrest of Montrose, Napier, Keir,
and Blackball ; and, accordingly, they were committed to the
Castle (June 11) on a charge of plotting.1
The news of the arrest of Montrose and his three asso-
ciates for an alleged Plot had caused some excitement in
London. Charles had hastened to write to Argyle, acknow-
ledging his letter to Montrose, but repudiating the construc-
tion put upon it, and expressing his hope that, when he
came to Scotland, as he still meant to do, he should have
Argyle's assistance in clearing away mistakes. Traquair also
had disavowed the deep designs attributed to him by his
relative Colonel Stewart, who had " ever been known," he
said, " for a fool, or at least a timid half-witted body," and
whose cipher-notes were but some cobweb of his own fancy.
Neither by the English Parliament, however, to whom infor-
mation was given by the Scottish Commissioners, nor by
the English public, to whom it was communicated in a
pamphlet, had the matter appeared so trivial.2
The month's work of the Scottish Parliament before
Charles arrived to take part in it (July 15 — Aug. 14) had
consisted, in a great measure, of debates, analogous to those
which had occupied so much of the time of the English
Parliament, respecting the trial and punishment of national
delinquents. There were two classes of such delinquents in
the Scottish reckoning. There were the " Incendiaries," as they
1 Napier's Montrose, I. 254—304 ; 2 Rushworth, IV. 290. 291 : and
Baillie, I. 356 et seq. Napier, I. 314—325.
1641.] THE KINC's VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 301
were called, or those chief delinquents (corresponding to the
Straf fords, Lauds, and Windebanks of the English) to whose
bad counsels and designs the late troubles of the nation were
mainly attributed ; and there were the " Plotters," or more
recent delinquents (corresponding to the Army-Plot men in
England), who had been disturbing the government established
by the Peace. In the former category were reckoned Tra-
quair, ex-Bishop Maxwell, Dr. Balcanquhal, Sir Robert Spots-
wood, and Sir John Hay ; in the latter were Montrose, Napier,
Keir, Blackball, and their messenger Colonel Stewart. As
most of the Incendiaries were at large in England, the busi-
ness, so far as it concerned them., resolved itself, for the most
part, into correspondence with the King with a view to
bringing them to trial. The Plotters, on the other hand,
being in custody, were several times interrogated, while
additional evidence was sought for in all directions to com-
plete the case against them. On the whole, the proceed-
ings against both classes of delinquents had to lie over
till the King's arrival. It was different with the poor Laird
of Ladywell. He was in a category by himself, and they
were able to make short work with him. Tried by a special
session of the Justiciary Court, and found guilty on his
own confession and on other evidence, he was beheaded
in the High Street of Edinburgh on the 28th of July. For
one who had the fatal honour of being beheaded he has left
but a pitiable figure of himself in the Scottish annals.1
The Laird of Lady well's head had been off a fortnight when
Charles and his train arrived in Edinburgh. He reached
Holyrood late on Saturday the 14th of August. How
different the circumstances in which he now found himself
once more beneath the slopes of Arthur's Seat from those
<.i his coronation visit in 1633 ! Then Laud had been with
him, to arrange the ceremonial and embroidery of the coro-
nation, direct the Scottish Bishops, and prepare the way for
a Service Book, Canons, and other measures for bringing the
imperfect Episcopacy of Scotland nearer the perfect mark.
i Baillie, I. 381 ; Napior, I. 880.
302 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Now Laud was left behind, a prisoner in the Tower, his
system wrecked and at an end within England itself; and
the first religious service that Charles had to endure in
Scotland was one conducted in the Palace Chapel, on the
morning after his arrival, by Alexander Henderson. It was
a service without liturgy, surplice, or any such thing, but
only the extempore Presbyterian prayers and a sermon on
the text Eom. xi. 36, " For of Him, and through Him, and
to Him are all things ; to whom be glory for ever : Amen."
During the whole of the King's stay Henderson acted as
his chaplain, and was treated by him with much respect.1
Charles undoubtedly had a purpose in his visit to Scotland.
Within limits, it may be discerned as a purpose natural, wise,
and not dishonourable to him in view of his own interests
in the circumstances in which he stood. To look out for
the ablest men he could find in the ranks of those who had
begun to think the Eevolution had gone far enough, and
to surround himself with these men as with a group of new
Conservatives who would take the places once occupied by
Strafford, Laud, Cottington, and their comrades, was Charles's
natural policy. It was a policy applicable to either king-
dom, but it seems to have occurred to him to try it first in
Scotland. We have seen what success he had had in gaining
over Eothes, when the protracted residence of that nobleman
in London had brought him within the reach of Court
influence. Eothes was as good as lost to Scotland ; he had
become a courtier; he was to have a place in the Bed-
chamber ; he was to marry the wealthy Countess-Dowager of
Devonshire, and be a Covenanter no more ! So Baillie had
complained. But what if Charles, in all this, was looking
forward to the use of Eothes in Scotland that very year ?
Did Charles think of bringing Eothes with him to Edin-
burgh, so that his voice might be again heard, in somewhat
new strains, in that Parliament in which he had led the liberal
opposition not so very long ago ? If such were the intention,
fate was against it. Poor Eothes ! He had been left in
dangerous illness in some house or lodging near Eichmond
i Baillie, I. 385, 386 ; Stevenson, 477—479 ; Eushworth, IV. 382.
1641.1 THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 303
Hill ; and thi-iv, amid autuinn scenery the most sylvan in
Kn^'lund, but with his memories straying perhaps among the
hills of his forsaken north, he was to die (Aug. 23) ere he
could well have heard how Charles was faring among his
countrymen.1 The services of Rothes being unavailable,
Charles might well have thought of Montrose. But Montrose
and his three confederates were prisoners in Edinburgh
Castle ; and, if he should see them at all during his stay,
it could be but as they might be brought up to the bar of
Parliament, when, if present, he might be able to favour them
with a glance or nod. It remained for Charles to make the
best he could of his relations with Argyle and those others
of the Committee of Estates who had the ascendency for
the time. He had the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis
of Hamilton, Hamilton's brother the Earl of Lanark, and
others, to assist him.
For about two months (Aug. 14 — Oct. 12) the King pro-
ceeded, to all appearance, by the right method. Day after
day he was present in the Parliament, feeling his way, and
making courteous, though sometimes sharp, little speeches.
In his very first speech he declared that " love to his native
country had been his chief motive to his journey," and that
his purpose was to " perfect whatsoever he had promised "
and to <: end distractions " ; and it was accepted as an omen
of peace that, within the first few days after his arrival, the
Duke of Lennox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earls of
Morton, Perth, Roxburgh, Lanark, and other nobles who
had hitherto stood out against the Covenant, qualified
tin -nisei ves for their places in Parliament by signing that
document and taking the other necessary oaths. Differ-
ences, indeed, did appear. There were, in the main, two
questions on which there were such differences. There was
the question of the filling up of the offices of State and
the Privy Councillorships which the Revolution had ren-
dered vacant, so as to determine in whose hands the future
government of Scotland should be vested, now that the
» Baillio, I. 388; Burn. -t v l.iv- ..f th, Dukw of Hamilton (edit. 1868),
234; nii'l Clarendon, I. '-'I'.'.
304 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
provisional government exercised by the Committee of
Estates had come to a natural end. The difference between
Charles and the Scottish leaders on this question was that,
whereas they maintained that all such appointments ought
to be made by the advice of Parliament, he claimed the
sole right of such appointments as inherent in his prero-
gative. The other question was that of the Incendiaries
and the Plotters. Charles, with a natural remorse in recol-
lection of Strafford, was anxious not only that Montrose and
his associates should escape the consequences of their con-
spiracy, but also that Traquair, Maxwell, and others who had
served his policy before the Kevolution, should be dealt with
lightly. On both these questions, but perhaps more on the
second than on the first, Charles seemed likely to carry
matters his own way. Hamilton did much towards per-
suading the leading nobles to lenient dealing with the
Incendiaries and Plotters ; and Argyle was disposed to yield
in this matter to an extent which Johnstone of Warriston
and many of the clergy thought excessive. Henderson,
however, went with Argyle, and gave his advice for forgetting
the past as much as might be.1
Suddenly, when, after two months of discussion, things
seemed to be adjusting themselves to an amicable conclusion,
there occurred a most mysterious business, which threw all
Edinburgh into alarm. What an air of mystery and vague-
ness hung over the occurrence at the time, and still hangs
over it, is indicated by the name given to it by Scottish his-
torians. It is called emphatically The Incident. The facts are
these : — On Tuesday the 1 2th of October the news ran through
Edinburgh that in the course of the preceding night Hamilton,
the Earl of Lanark, and Argyle had fled from the city hur-
riedly, and gone to Kinneill House, a seat of Hamilton's,
about twelve miles distant. The three noblemen, it was said,
had been secretly informed of a plot laid for them. They
were that night to be sent for, as if on important business, to
the King's bedchamber ; they were there to be arrested by
a body of armed men under the command of the Earl of
1 Baillie, I. 389 et seq. ; and Balfour's Annals, III. 40—94.
1641.] THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 305
Crawford ; they were to be smuggled into a coach, carried to
Leith, and put on board one of the King's ships lying in the
Firth ; if a rescue were attempted, they were to be killed ;
but, once on board the ship, they were to be kept there till
the King's pleasure should be known ! Meanwhile a regiment
in Musselburgh under the command of Colonel Cochrane
was to be marched to Edinburgh ; there were to be arrests of
other leading Parliament-men, and even a slaughter of the
citizens if they resisted ; Montrose and his associates were to
be released from their prisons, and Montrose was to take
command of the Castle ; there was to be a rising of all the
disaffected districts ; and, the power being once more in the
King's hands, there was to be a re-ordering of Parliament,
and a trial of its recent chiefs for high treason ! Such were
the rumours, wild, monstrous, and horrible, that filled Edin-
burgh on the morning of the 12th, and gathered the citizens
in crowds round the Parliament House. Hasting thither in
a fury and with an armed following, the King had almost
to break his way in. He had come, he said, to complain of
an outrage on his honour. Could he have believed that any
three noblemen would have thrown such suspicion on their
sovereign as to flee from him without notice, under pretext of
a plot to be executed against them at the door of his bed-
chamber ? The very men, too, with whom he had been most
intimate, whom he had most honoured ! Above all, Hamilton !
O, if they but knew how he had favoured that man, disbelieving
charges to his discredit that had for years been in circulation !
So the King addressed the Parliament, with oaths, repetitions,
even " tears in his eyes." They listened reverentially and
even sympathetically. Still there were ugly appearances.
Were there not wild swaggerers about the Court, fit for
anything desperate ? Had not Crawford, after too much
drink, carried a challenge to Hamilton from young Lord
Ker, the son of the Earl of Roxburgh, which Hamilton had
quietly disregarded as but a drunken frolic ; and had not
another nobleman been heard to say that " there were now
three Kings in Scotland, and, by God, two of them (Hamilton
and Argyle) ought to have their heads cut off" ? Nay, this
VOL. II X
306 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
coming of the King himself to Parliament with an armed
following, though with no evil intention, might it not lead
to evil ? In short, Crawford, Cochrane, and others were
laid fast, the city-bands were drawn closer round the Parlia-
ment House, and such regiments of horse and foot were
brought to the spot as were within the sound of Leslie's
whistle.1
Gradually the commotion subsided. The result of an
inquiry, so far as it was made public, was that Crawford,
Cochrane, and others had been concerting something desperate,
but that " nothing was found that touched the King ; neither
much that did reflect on the Duke (Eichmond), or on Almont,
or William Murray (one of the King's attendants)." As re-
spected Montrose, the fact of his being then a prisoner in the
Castle rendered any active share in the plot on his part impos-
sible ; but Crawford and Cochrane had been in relations with
him before his imprisonment, and it was ascertained that
quite recently he had been communicating from his prison
with the King by letters sent through William Murray.2
Having thus taken the measure of the plot, whatever it was,
the Parliament was not disposed to make too much of it ; and,
the King on his side cooling down from his first violence of
rage, Hamilton, Lanark, and Argyle, after a week or two of
absence, were induced to return to Edinburgh.
Business was then resumed ; and, the power of Argyle having
been greatly increased by " The Incident," the proceedings of
the session were brought harmoniously to a close. On the
1 7th of November the Parliament held its last sitting, having
since its meeting on the 15th of July got through a body of
1 Balfour's Annals, III. 94—101; 'merit,' but rather desired 'to kill
Baillie, I. 391 et seq. ; Stevenson, 485 ; 'them both,' which he frankly 'under-
Napier, I. 358 — 368, and Appendix, ' took to do ' ; but the King, abhorring
pp. Iv — Ixxvi. ' that expedient, for his own security,
2 SeeClar. 119. " After his Majesty's 'advised 'that the proofs might be
'arrival in Scotland," says Clarendon, 'prepared for the Parliament' : when
'he (Montrose), by the introduction 'suddenly," &c. (Here follows the
'of Mr. William Murray of the Bed- story of "The Incident.") Now, Mont-
' chamber, came privately to the King, rose was in prison at the time, so that
' and informed him of many particulars his connexion with "The Incident"
' from the beginning of the Rebellion, cannot have been so direct. But, as
'and 'that the Marquis of Hamilton a confused recollection by Clarendon
' was no less faulty and false towards of what he must have heard afterwards
'his Majesty than Argyle, 'and offered from the King himself, the story has
' ' to make proof of all in the Parlia- some significance.
1641.] THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 307
public and private acts which now fill 350 folio printed pages
of the Scottish Statute-book. The business of the " Incen-
diaries " and " Plotters " had at length been wound up by a
compromise, by which, while the legal proceedings against
them were to be continued to their issue, the men themselves
were to be considered as forgiven beforehand. Accordingly,
Montrose, Napier, Keir, Blackball, and the two Incendiaries in
custody, Spotswood and Hay, were liberated on security. In
the more difficult business, too, of the arrangement of the
future Government, the Parliament and the King had come to
an understanding. The office of Chancellor of Scotland was
conferred on Lord Loudoun ; the Treasurership was given to
a commission of five, of whom Argyle was chief ; the Privy
Seal was continued in the hands of the Earl of Roxburgh ;
the Secretaryship of State was given to the Earl of Lanark ;
and with these and other state-officers there were associated
thirty-nine persons of different ranks, including the Duke of
Lennox and the Marquis of Hamilton, to act as members of
the general Privy Council. The Fifteen Lords of Session,
or Judges of the Supreme Court, were also duly named, — four
of the former Fifteen being displaced for new men, among
whom was Johnstone of Warriston. Finally, that all might
be concluded graciously, there was a sufficient sprinkling of
peerages and knighthoods among the men of merit. Lord
Loudoun, in addition to the Chancellorship, received pro-
motion in the peerage and became Earl of Loudoun, his right
to that title to be reckoned from May 12, 1633, when a
patent for it had been made out ; Field-Marshal Leslie was
created Earl of Leven, with descent to all heirs whatever ;
Lord Alrnont, Leslie's second in command, was raised to
tin- Earldom of Callander ; one Knight was made a
Viscount, and three were made Barons. Among the new
knights we need note only Sir Archibald Johnstone of
Warriston, known henceforward also by his judge's courtesy
title of "Lord Warriston." But the greatest promotion
and the most ceremoniously conferred was on the last
day of the session, when, in the very midst of the closing
state-formalities which had been begun by a splendid proces-
308 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
sion to the House, the King caused a patent to be read, dated
Nov. 15, raising Archibald, Earl of Argyle, to the dignity of
Marquis, and then with his own hand delivered the patent to
the obeisant nobleman. Then came the closing sermon and
prayer by Mr. Henderson, and the breaking-up of the Parlia-
ment into the crowded and lighted High Street about eight
o'clock in the evening. It was too late to re-form the pro-
cession to convey his Majesty down the street to Holyrood,
but not too late for the huzzas of the people, and the firing
of great guns on the battlements of the Castle.1
The next day Charles took his departure from Edinburgh,
having, according to Clarendon, only made " a more perfect
deed of gift " of his native kingdom to the men who had been
wringing it from him, but " leaving the Scots a most contented
people," as one of their own historians relates.
IRISH INSURRECTION.
At the very time when Scotland was so unusually happy,
poor Ireland was in a welter of misery from end to end, by
reason of an insurrection the most dreadful that we read of
even in her annals. During the last three weeks of Charles's
stay in Scotland this Irish insurrection had been the ghastly
subject of all men's thoughts throughout both Scotland and
England, and every post from Ireland had been looked for
with the intensest anxiety in Edinburgh, London, and every
city, town, and village in either kingdom. The news indeed
had hastened the final arrangements between the King and
the Scots.
Immediately after the execution of Strafford, the Lord-
Lieutenancy of Ireland had been conferred on Eobert Sidney,
Earl of Leicester, already known to us as Lord Scudamore's
fellow-ambassador from Britain to the French Court.2 But,
though appointed May 19, 1641, he had not gone over to
assume office, but had left the management of Irish affairs in
the meantime to the resident officials in Dublin, the chief of
i Balfour's Annals, III. 130—165 ; Acts of Parl. of Scotland, V. 334—683.
Baillie, I. 393 ; Stevenson, 478—493 ; 2 Vol. I. pp. 751
1641.] IRISH INSURRECTION. 309
whom were the Lords-Justices Sir William Parsons and Sir
John Borlace. Little was it known either to him or to them
what an explosion was in preparation. As Scotland and
England had had their revolutions, so Ireland had determined
to have hers. Had not she also her catalogue of woes and
wrongs, older and deeper than any that afflicted Scotland or
England ? Was not her national religion proscribed and
trodden down ; was not her native population ruled by a
minority of alien colonists ; were not her lands slowly wrested
by every process and quirk of law from their ancient lords,
and clutched by these intruders ; were not her children, even
when they had the means, restrained from the re-purchase of
those lands, in order that the entire territory might gradually
pass into the hands of strangers ? Ireland would have her
revolution, and it should be after her own fashion.
The prime mover, it is said, was Roger More, or Rory
O'More, of Ballynagh, co. Kildare, described as " one of the
most handsome, comely, and proper persons of his time, of
excellent parts, good judgment and great cunning, affable and
courteous in his behaviour, insinuating in his address, and
agreeable in his conversation." He had been brooding over
his country's wrongs ; and, having persuaded himself that the
distracted state of England and the precedent of the Scottish
revolt afforded a fair opportunity for an Irish rising, he had,
from the beginning of 1641, been organizing a conspiracy to
that end. He had been in communication with the Earl of
Tyrone, son of the famous Tyrone of a former generation,
and then a colonel in the Spanish service, and with other Irish
exiles in Spain, France, and Flanders ; and at home he had
inspired with his views a small group of persons, chieHy of
old Irish families, but with one or two Anglo-Irishmen among
them. Sir Phelim O'Neile of county Tyrone, Lord Macguire
of county Fennanagh, and Colonel Hugh Macmahon of
county Monaghan, were the chief of the Irish conspirators,
and Colonel Richard Plunket the chief of the Anglo-Irish
conspirators, in this group around More. Their scheme, after
various meetings and deliberations, took this shape : — On
Saturday the 23rd of October, " being St. Ignatius Loyola's
310 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
day," there was to be an attack upon the Castle of Dublin,
then containing stores of arms and ammunition ; at the same
hour there were to be attacks by local bands of insurgents on
other places of strength throughout Ireland : thus over the
whole island simultaneously the native Irish would be up in
arms, chasing and encircling the English and Scottish Protest-
ants, and able to maintain the insurrection till they should
be joined, as was hoped, by the Catholics of the Pale, and
reinforced also by the arrival of trained military men from
among the Irish exiles on the Continent. The Earl of Tyrone
having meanwhile died abroad, the military exile whose
arrival was most eagerly expected was another scion of the
great O'Neile clan, Owen Eoe O'Neile, Colonel in the Spanish
service in Flanders.1
Whatever was the original conspiracy, hardly a whisper of
it reached the Lords- Justices till the 22nd of October, the eve
of the fatal day. They were able to take precautions by which
Dublin was saved, and Macguire, Macmahon, and some others
were arrested; but punctually, the next day, bands of insurgents
were at work in the county of Monaghan and other counties,
roving about, burning and sacking the houses of Protestants,
and chasing the unhoused men, women, and children over
the moors and fields. Next day, and the next, and the next,
it was the same, the insurrection spreading from county to
county wherever there were English or Scottish settlers, and
everywhere with the same effects. Having but 2,000 foot and
1,000 horse at their disposal, and these in garrison or wanted
for the protection of Dublin, the Lords -Justices could do
nothing but remain where they were, in fear and trembling,
receiving such fugitives as nocked into Dublin, and writing
despatch after despatch to Leicester in London, and the King
in Edinburgh, imploring immediate help and instructions.
At length (Nov. 5) they report that all the estates and houses
of Protestants in five counties of Ulster have already been
seized, and the despoiled families either murdered or otherwise
barbarously treated; that, though the insurrection was fiercest
in Ulster, where the English and Scots were most numerous,
i Carte's Ormond, I. 153—164, and Rushworth, IV. 398 et seq.
1641.] IRISH INSURRECTION. 311
it had spread into the other provinces, wherever there were
stray Protestant families, and, more particularly, was raging
in Leitrim (Connaught) and in Longford, Meath, Louth, King's
County, and Queen's County (Leinster) ; and that, in fact, the
whole of the north and north-east of Ireland was in posses-
sion of the native Irish, who had an army of 30,000 in the
field, then going about in great divisions, and threatening to
take Dundalk and Drogheda, and then Dublin. But, indeed,
by this time there were proclamations of the insurgents from
which it was possible to judge of their strength and their
intentions. One manifesto which they issued under the title
of " The Oath of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland " was
a kind of Irish equivalent of the Scottish Covenant, by which
those who took it swore " by Almighty God and all the Angels
and Saints in Heaven " to maintain and defend " the public
and free exercise of the true and Catholic Roman Religion,"
and also to bear faithful allegiance to King Charles, his heirs
and successors, and to stand by them against all that should
" directly or indirectly endeavour to suppress their royal pre-
rogatives." Nay, certain of the insurgent leaders, with Sir
Phelim O'Neile at their head, actually put forth a proclama-
tion, dated " From our camp at Newry this 4th of November
1641," in which they declared themselves to be acting under
a direct commission from Charles issued by him at Edinburgh
on the preceding 1st of October under the Great Seal of
Scotland They were audacious enough to publish the text
of this alleged commission, the purport of which was that,
whereas Charles had been obliged " by the obstinate and dis-
obedient carriage of the English Parliament " to take refuge
in Scotland, he authorized his faithful Irish to advise, consult,
and combine together in his interest, to possess themselves of
all forts, castles, and places of strength in Ireland, except such
as were occupied by " his loving and loyal subjects, the Scots,"
and to " arrest and seize the goods, estates, and persons, of all
the English Protestants." For a while, on the faith of this
document (rejected by all subsequent inquirers as a proved
forgery), the Insurgent army assumed the name of "The
King's army " ; and, when that would not answer, they called
312 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
themselves " The Queen's Army," and professed to act under
instructions direct from the Queen-Consort.
Eoger More and others of the original conspirators may
have had visions of an insurrection that should be controlled
by political purpose, so as, while it effected the liberation of
the native race and religion on the one hand, to be, on the
other, a loyal service to the King's cause in the midst of his
English difficulties. Certain it is, however, that from the first
moment the actual Insurrection burst all bounds of govern-
ment or reason, and became a mere revel of murderous phrenzy,
from which More recoiled, leaving Phelim O'Neile chiefly re-
sponsible. According to the lowest contemporary calculations
as many as 30,000 Protestants, English and Scottish, were mur-
dered within the first few months of the Insurrection ; other
calculations raised the number to 100,000 ; and the historian
May gives the utterly bewildered estimate of 200,000 within
the first month only. Bound numbers in such a case are falla-
cious, and we must suppose exaggeration even in the lowest
estimate ; but, by way of specimens in detail, take the
following statements picked out from fifteen folio pages of
Eushworth, containing a compilation from depositions after-
wards given on oath by witnesses of the horrors in different
parts of Ireland. The compilation is very confused, and
it is difficult to identify some of the places named :
Co. Antrim: In one morning as many as 954 killed, and
1100 or 1200 at other times. Co. Armagh: "Protest-
ants in multitudes forced over the bridge at Portadown,
whereby at several times there were drowned in the river
Bann about 1,000 "; " forty-four at several times drowned in
the Blackwater " ; " two-and-twenty Protestants put into a
thatched house in the parish of Kilmore and there burnt
alive " ; " seventeen men, women, and children cast into a
bog-pit in the parish of Dumcreess (?) " ; " three hundred Pro-
testants stripped naked and put into the church of Loghall,
whereof about a hundred murdered within the church, and
such as were not murdered were turned out a-begging
amongst the Irish, naked, and into the cold, most of whom
were killed by Irish trulls and children " ; one Mary Barlow,
1041.] IRISH INSURRECTION. 313
her husband having been hanged, stripped naked with her six
children, and " turned out a-begging in frost and snow, by
means whereof they were almost starved, having nothing to
eat in three weeks that they lay in a cave, but two old calf-
skins, which they beat with stones and so eat them, hair and
all " ; " Lieutenant Giles Maxwell, by order of Sir Phelim
O'Neile, dragged out of his bed, raving in the height of a
burning fever, driven two miles, and murdered," and his wife,
then pregnant, " stripped naked and drowned in the Black-
water, the child half-born " ; Mr. Starkey, a very old man,
and his two daughters, stripped naked, driven along three
quarters of a mile, and then " all three drowned in a turf-
pit." Co. Down : Eighty forced to go on the ice on Lough
Earn (?) till they brake the ice and were drowned " ; " at
Servagh (?) Bridge 100 drowned, more 80, more 60, more
50, more 60"; about 1,000 killed in this county by one
of the rebel chiefs alone. Co. Tyrone: "About 300
murdered on the way to Colrain (?) by direction from Sir
Phelim O'Neile " ; "in and about Dungannon 316 murdered " ;
" between Charlemont and Dungannon about 400 murdered " ;
" eighteen Scotch infants hanged on clothiers' tenter-hooks,
and one young fat Scotchman murdered and candles made
of his grease," &c. Co. Tipperary : " Four-and-twenty
English, after they had revolted to the Mass, murdered at
the Silver Mines " ; " near Kilfeckel an Englishman, his
wife and four or five children, hanged," and " all afterwards
cast into one hole, — the youngest child, not fully dead, putting
up the hand and crying ' Mammy,' yet buried alive " ; &c.
Co.Roscommon: "William Stewart had collopscut off him,
being alive, fire-coals put into his mouth, his belly ripped up
and his entrails wrapped about his neck and wrists."
Enough of these quotations. The mind refuses to believe
in more than a fraction of their horrible details as by any pos-
sibility authentic. But such were the stories that every post
brought over to England and Scotland, and that represented,
too truly in tin main, with whatever exaggeration in parti-
culars, what was actually passing in the dreadful island
so near.
314 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
The sea ringed the Green Island round ; the white
cold winter descended upon it ; and, while the wretched
remnant of its Protestant inhabitants from all parts were
gathered in stables and outhouses about Dublin, or on other
spots of its eastern fringe, whence they could gaze across
towards the mother-lands and call to them for help, the
spectres of the murdered, it was said, haunted the interior
desolation. Take this fragment from the deposition after-
wards made by " Elizabeth, the wife of Captain Eice Price, of
Armagh," when she was examined on oath as to what she
had seen and suffered in the Insurrection. " She and other
" women whose husbands were murdered, hearing of divers
" apparitions and visions which were seen near Portadown
" Bridge since the drowning of her children and the rest of
" the Protestants there, went unto the Bridge aforesaid about
" twilight in the evening, and then and there on a sudden
" there appeared unto them a vision or spirit, assuming the
" shape of a woman, naked, with elevated and closed hands,
" her hair hanging down, very white, her eyes seeming to
" twinkle, and her skin as white as snow ; which spirit
" seemed to stand straight upright in the water, often re-
" peating the word Revenge, Revenge, Revenge ; whereat this
" deponent and the rest, being put into a strong amazement
" and affright, walked from the place." It is but the dis-
ordered fancy of a poor bereaved woman, and probably
dressed up in the telling ; but the historian might labour long
before he could devise a more exact image of the state of
Ireland in the winter of 1641—42, as it appeared to the Pro-
testants of Britain, than this ghastly one of the naked female
figure emerging each nightfall from the pool of an inland
Irish river, stretching up clenched hands in the solitude, and
calling, ere she sank, Revenge, Revenge, Revenge ! l
1 For summaries of the facts of the Kingdom of Ireland upon the 23rd day
Irish Insurrection see Rushworth, IV. of October, 1641, published, in 1646, by
398— 421 (in reality, with extra pages, 54 Sir John Temple, Master of the Rolls
pages in all) ; May, 79—87 ; Clarendon, in Ireland. See Hallam's Const. Hist.
120-121. An earlier authority, much 10th ed. III. 391—393, and notes, for
followed by these, is the History of the a calm estimate of the degree of cre-
Beginnings and First Progress of the dibility belonging to the original ac-
Greneral Rebellion raised within the counts of the massacres.
CHAPTER VI.
AFTER THE RECESS, OR FIVE MONTHS OF ABORTIVE REACTION (OCT.
1641 — MARCH 1641-2): — THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE — TUMULTS
IN LONDON, AND ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS'S BLUNDER CHARLES'S
COUP D'ETAT, OR ATTEMPTED ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS — HIS
DEPARTURE FROM LONDON BISHOPS EXCLUSION BILL PASSED.
WHEN the English Parliament met again after the Recess
(Oct 20, 1641) the King was yet in Scotland. The Plague
being still in London, and the mortality considerable,1 the
Houses were not very full at first. The Movement party,
however, was strong enough at once to resume action. Pym
had taken no holiday at all, but had remained in town, or at
Chelsea, all through the Recess, as Chairman of the Committee
of Vigilance appointed by the Commons. He was never in
greater force. In his Report, given in on the first day, of
what had been heard and done by the Committee during the
Recess, he struck, though cautiously, a note of alarm. The
news from Scotland was not reassuring. General rumours of
TJie Incident had reached London some days before, and, along
with these rumours, letters from Hampden, Stapleton, Fiennes,
and the other Parliamentary Commissioners attending the
King at Holyrood. These letters conveyed more than was
meant for the public ear. Whatever suspicions had been
entertained before of some unusual motive in the King's visit
to Scotland were now converted into positive belief. Was
there no connexion between that plot against Argyle and
Hamilton in Scotland, which had happily failed, and some
1 Letter, in 8. P. 0., from Thomas Plague in the city in the preceding
Wiseman to Admiral Ponnin^tun, of week,
date Oct. 7, reports 289 deaths from
316 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
similar conspiracy by desperate men in England against the
Parliament or its popular chiefs ? If Scotland had her
Montroses, Crawfords, Cochranes, and the like, had not
England her Digbys, her Percys, her Wilmots, and army-
men of still wilder character, ready for anything ; and was
it so sure that the two groups were not in correspondence ?
In these circumstances what could the two Houses do but
require Essex, as commander-in-chief for the King south of
the Trent, to do as Leslie had done for the Scottish Parlia-
ment, and give them a guard of trained-bands ?*
RESUMED ACTIVITY : THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE.
These necessary preliminaries over, the Commons took up
their work precisely at the point where they had left it off.
They resumed their dealings with the Lords for bringing the
thirteen impeached Bishops to trial, again demanding, through
Pym, the sequestration of those Bishops from their places in
the Lords till their trial should be over. Not only so ; but,
on the second day of their sittings (Oct. 21), they introduced
a new Bill for the total exclusion of Bishops from Parliament
and civil offices, in lieu of the former Bill which the Lords
had rejected. This new Bill, which fixed the 10th of
November next as the date when it was to come into effect,
passed the Commons on the third reading on the 23rd of
October, and was on the same day sent up to the Lords,
with a request that it might be passed there with all speed,
as a Bill which much concerned the good of the Common-
wealth. The Commons also insisted that all the Bishops
without exception should be suspended from their votes on
this particular Bill, so that it should be carried by the votes
of the lay peers alone.2
Suddenly into the midst of these questions there came a
vast and horrible interruption. It was on the 1st of Novem-
ber that the first news of the Irish Insurrection reached
London ; and for many days men could think of nothing else.
i Parl. Hist. II. 910—917 ; Rush- 2 Commons Journals of Oct. 21 and
worth, IV. 388 et seq. ; Clar. Hist. 119 ; Oct. 23 ; Lords Journals of Oct. 23 and
Baillie, I. 391—393. Oct. 28 ; Parl. Hist. II. 916, 917.
1641.] THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 317
Not at first was the worst known ; but even from the first
enough was known. One can see yet, in the discussions
which took place immediately in the two Houses, and in
the records of the state of feeling out of doors, the struggle
between two passions of nearly equal strength. There was
an agony of desire, on the one hand, to send help to the Irish
Protestants and put down the insurrection ; and there was a
dread, on the other hand, lest the King should, in our modern
phrase, be able to make political capital out of the emergency,
by converting it into a reason for raising an army, ostensibly
for immediate service in Ireland, but really for ulterior ends.
The one feeling showed itself in resolutions for raising men
and money in certain ways as soon as possible, and for mean-
while accepting with thanks the services of 10,000 Scots,
under some of Leslie's late officers, offered for Ireland by
the Scottish Parliament For the Irish calamity was being
simultaneously discussed in the Scottish Parliament, in the
King's own presence or vicinity, and there, owing to circum-
stances, with greater power to come to a practical conclusion.
The Scots could easily spare for Ireland ten thousand of their
blue-bonnets recently disbanded from about Newcastle ; but,
as Ireland belonged to the English crown, it depended on the
King and the English Parliament to say whether they would
accept such help. The King, on his side, demurred about
introducing so many armed Scots into what was a purely
English dominion, unless there were to be in the field an
English force of equal or greater numbers, and officered by
himself. To what use, towards a counter-revolution in
England, such an army might be turned could not escape the
popular sagacity, even if the King's intentions at the moment
were taken in good faith, and those dark suspicions were false
which supposed that the King's own hand, or the hand of the
Queen for him, might be detected in the Irish Insurrection.
The citizens of London let Parliament know that they would
be ready with loans and subscriptions for the relief of their
Iri-h Protestant brethren, but would like assurance that the
application of the moneys and the conduct of the enterprise
should be in the right hands. But the Parliament's own in-
318 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
structions, in letters sent by both Houses to their envoys with
the King at Edinburgh (Nov. 10), indicate best both the inten-
sity and the complexity of the emotions of the time. " You
" shall represent to his Majesty," they say, " this our humble
" and faithful declaration that we cannot without much grief
" remember the great miseries, burthens and distempers,
" which have for divers years afflicted all his kingdoms and
" dominions, and brought them to the last point of ruin and
" destruction ; all which have issued from the cunning, false,
" and malicious practices of some of those who have been
" admitted into very near places of counsel and authority
" about him." They went on to attribute even the Irish In-
surrection to the continued influence of these bad counsellors,
the removal of whom they prayed for ; and they wound up,
almost threateningly, thus : " If herein his Majesty shall
" not vouchsafe to condescend to our humble supplication,
" although we shall always continue, with reverence and
" faithfulness to his person and to his crown, to perform
" those duties of service and obedience to which by the
" laws of God and this kingdom we are obliged, yet we shall
" be forced, in discharge of the trust we owe to the State and
" those whom we represent, to resolve upon some such way
" of defending Ireland from the rebels as may concur to the
" securing ourselves from such mischievous counsels and
" designs." Here, therefore, there were two new develop-
ments of the policy of the party of movement. There was to
be an attack, if made necessary by the King's conduct, on his
present " evil counsellors " ; and there was to be some assump-
tion by Parliament of that power of the Militia, or the arming
of the subject, which had hitherto been in the King's preroga-
tive. The Scottish " Incident " had awakened them to the
necessity of the first ; that and the Irish Insurrection together
had suggested the second. It is curious to observe, however,
that, while the idea of a blow at the " evil counsellors " was
Pym's, the suggestion of assuming some control of the Army
was Cromwell's. On the 8th of November, or three days
before the date of the above- quoted instructions to the English
envoys at Edinburgh, Cromwell had moved that the Commons,
1641.] THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 319
while conferring with the Lords as to the lesser of the
instructions, should also desire them " that an ordinance of
Parliament might pass to give the Earl of Essex power to
assemble, at all times, the trained bands of the kingdom on
this side Trent." One sees Pym and Cromwell blended in
the letter to Edinburgh.1
Meanwhile the roused state of feeling in the Commons
had taken a form of expression singularly large and unprac-
tical, as one might suppose now on a hasty view, but the
practical importance of which at the time is vouched for by
the fact that men like Pym, Hampden, and Cromwell threw
their whole strength into it, and that the chiefs of the con-
servative opposition, including Hyde, Falkland and Cole-
pepper, made equal exertions to secure its defeat. The
Movement party had resolved on a great pitched battle
between them and the opposition, which should try their
relative strengths before the King's return ; and they chose
to fight this battle over a vast document, which they entitled
" A Declaration and Remonstrance of the State of the King-
dom," but which has come to be known since as Tlie Grand
Bemonstrance. Of this document, and the debates upon it,
a summary account is sufficient here.2
The notion of a great general document which, under the
name of " A Remonstrance," should present to the King in
one view a survey of the principal evils that had crept into
the kingdom in his own and preceding reigns, with a detection
of their causes and a specification of the remedies, had more
than once been before the Commons. It had been first
mooted by Lord Digby while the Parliament was not a week
old. Again and again set aside for more immediate work, it
had recurred to the leaders of the Movement party, just before
» Rushworth, IV. 389 et ttq. ; Parl. ond accumulates all the information
Hist. II. 927 — 936; Baillio, I. 396, about it that contemporary document*
•rater's Grand Remonstrance, pp. can be made to yield. But, as Mr.
198, 199. Pointer takes the (J mud Remonstrance M
* See Mr. Pointer's historical mono- a central incident, and goes back into
^r i ph. entitled The Debate* on the its causes, and follows it into its con-
Remonstrance (I860),— an admir- nexions, his book is an excellent contri-
able sjKJcimenof th.it kiinl «.f History Imtion to the general history of the
Whir! ',<irti..M, «T
say one month. c.\i
320 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the King's departure for Scotland, as likely to afford the
broad extent of battle-ground then becoming desirable. " A
" Eemonstrance to be made, how we found the Kingdom and
" the Church, and how the state of it now stands," such was
the description of the then intended document (Aug. 7).
The document had doubtless been in rehearsal through the
Eecess, for on the 8th of November the rough draft of it was
presented to the House and read at the clerk's table. When
we say that the document in its final form occupies thirteen
folio pages of rather close print in Eushworth, and consists
of a preamble followed by 206 articles or paragraphs, duly
numbered, one can conceive what a task the reading of
even the first draft of it must have been, and through what
a storm of successive debates over proposed amendments
and additions it reached completeness. There had been no
such debates yet in the Parliament. The movers, though
proposing the document for the King's edification, foresaw
that, in its printed form, it would be an appeal to the
country and a manifesto to all Europe ; and, on the other
hand, the Opposition were roused to the most strenuous
resistance by earnest instructions from the King, sent
through the faithful Mr. Nicholas. There were debates on
Nov. 9, Nov. 10, Nov. 12, Nov. 15, Nov. 16, Nov. 19, and
Nov. 20. Among the earliest speakers on the one side were
Cromwell, Strode, Whitlocke, and Sir John Clotworthy, and
on the other Mr. Geoffrey Palmer, Falkland, Hyde, and Sir
Edward Deering. At length, on Saturday Nov. 20, the
Eemonstrance, having been fought through inch by inch,
and clause by clause, was ready, as it seemed, for the final vote.
The King being then on his way from Scotland, the movers
were urgent that it should be read and finished that night ;
but this was met by such resolute opposition that Pym
yielded, and it was put off till Monday. As the members
were leaving the House, Clarendon tells us, Oliver Cromwell
asked Falkland why he and his party wanted the adjournment
when the matter might have been ended at that sitting. On
Falkland's replying that there would surely be some debate
on it yet, Cromwell answered, " A very sorry one." But on
1641.] THE GRAND REMONSTRAN- 321
the Monday (Nov. 22) Falkland proved to be right. On that
day there were no fewer than four divisions, each preceded
by a debate. Among the speakers against were Hyde,
Falkland, Deering, Rudyard, Bagshaw, Colepepper, Orlando
Bridgman, Edmund Waller the poet, Mr. Coventry, and
Geoffrey Palmer ; the burden of replying to whom rested
chiefly on Pym, Hampden, Denzil Holies, Glynn, and May-
nard. Very rarely did the House in those days, meeting as it
did at eight or ten in the morning, sit far into the afternoon ;
and the bringing in of candles was an exceptional occurrence,
requiring a special order. But on this occasion candles were
brought in, and on and on the House sat, as if it would never
rise. It was past midnight before the question on the third
division was put ; that question being " Whether this De-
claration, so amended, shall pass ? " The votes were Ayes
159, Noes 148, giving a majority of 1 1 for the Remonstrance
in what was, at this period of the Long Parliament, a full
House. But then ensued a tremendous scene. Mr. Peard,
member for Barnstaple (and not, as Clarendon states, Hamp-
den), having moved the printing of the Remonstrance, the
Opposition, though such a sequel to the former vote had been
presupposed all along, made another stand. It was uncon-
stitutional, Hyde and Colepepper argued, for the Commons to
proceed to printing any debate or determination of their House
not first transmitted regularly to the Lords ; and, were the mo-
tion persisted in, they should ask leave to enter their protests.
This notion of protesting, which the Opposition had reserved
to the last, was a novelty. It was customary in the Lords
for a minority, or for any members of it, to have their names
registered as protesting against a decision of the House ; but
in the Commons it was not the practice, and the consequences
were at once apparent of allowing it in this case, and so
letting a list of names go forth to the country that should
represent a formal league banded against the rest of the
House. Nevertheless, the majority would probably have been
satisfied with reserving the question of the right to protest
for another day's discussion, but for the imprudence of
Geoffrey Palmer, who, rising to express his own wish, as one
VOL. II Y
322 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
of the minority, that such a day might be at once fixed,
moved meanwhile that the Clerk should take down the
names of all who desired to avail themselves of this claim.
" All ! All ! " was the cry that burst from the excited Opposi-
tion ; " and some," says D'Ewes, " waved their hats over their
" heads, and others took their swords in their scabbards out
" of their belts, and held them by the pommels in their hands,
" setting the lower part on the ground." Carried beyond him-
self by this enthusiastic uproar, Palmer cried out that he did
then and there protest, for himself and all the rest. On both
sides now there was the wildest excitement. Sir Philip
Warwick, remembering the scene afterwards, thought they
would all have sat that morning in the Valley of the Shadow
of Death, for, like Joab's and Abner's young men, representing
opposite sides by the pool of Gibeon (1 Sam. ii. 12-16), " they
would have catched at each other's locks and sheathed their
swords in each other's bowels." It was thought that only the
great presence of mind of Hampden, shown in a few calm
words that turned the thoughts of all into a new channel,
prevented bloodshed. The motion for immediate printing
was waived by the majority, and was converted into a motion
that the Eemonstrance should not be printed without the
particular order of the House. But, Hyde's party trying
to extend this into a prohibition of " publishing " as well
as " printing," there was the fourth division of the day, de-
feating Hyde's party again by 124 votes against 101. The
clocks were striking two in the morning as the House broke
up. " As they went out," says Clarendon, " the lord Falkland
" asked Oliver Cromwell whether there had been a debate ;
" to which he answered that he would ' take his word another
" ' time,' and whispered him in the ear, with some asseveration,
" ' that, if the Kemonstrance had been rejected, he would have
" ' sold all he had the next morning, and never have seen
" ' England more, and he knew there were many other honest
" ' men of the same resolution.' " l
i Commons Journals of Nov. 20 arid Hist. 124, 125 ; but, above all, Mr.
22 ; Parl. Hist. II. 937—963 ; Whit- Forster's Grand Remonstrance, where
locke's Memorials, I. 148 ; Clarendon, many details are given.
1641.] THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 323
While the Commons were still occupied with various odds
and ends arising out of the great debates of that Monday,
the King was back in London. Coming from Theobalds by
coach, with the Queen, the royal children, and a great attend-
ance of lords, he reached the City by Moorgate on Thursday
Nov. 25. His reception was unusually gorgeous and en-
thusiastic; for Gurney, the Lord Mayor (knighted on the
occasion, with five Aldermen and two Sheriffs), was an
especially loyal person, and the people were really glad to
see their King again after his eleven weeks among the Picts.
The ride from Moorgate to Guildhall was a long and tri-
umphant procession; at Guildhall there was a feast for hours;
and from Guildhall to Whitehall there was again a procession,
but by torchlight, through the cheering crowds that lined the
streets. Poetry, in Latin and English, abounded on the
occasion ; and the City-poet furnished his special copy of
verses. In this piece, London, exulting in the recovery of
the King, begs him never to go away again : —
" But go no more ! Leave me no more with fears
And loyal grief, to spend my Thames in tears !
Your next return may some due honour miss :
I shall not then have done my joy for this." l
This enthusiastic reception of Charles by the Londoners
seems to have confirmed him in a notion which he had
formed while in Scotland. His visit to Scotland, indeed,
had not turned out quite as he may have hoped. Instead of
seeing any such upturning of the Argyle supremacy, and any
such re-settling of his own authority on another basis, as
Montrose and the other members of the Merchiston House
Compact had conceived possible, he had been obliged to
leave the Presbyterian chiefs, Argyle, Loudoun, Leslie, and
Johnstone of Warriston, in full possession, and not only
in full possession, but decorated, and recommended to their
countrymen by his own royal approbation. Still he had
extracted some secret hope from his Scottish visit He
had become better aware of smouldering elements there that
i RiMhworth, IV. 429—434.
324 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
he might trust to in the future ; and he had collected
information that might burst on some people's heads in the
English Parliament when they least expected it. His spirits
had clearly risen with his prospect ; and he had even ventured,
before leaving Edinburgh, to give the Koot-and-Branch party
in England a foretaste of his determination never to accept
their policy.
On reverting to our list of the spiritual Peers or Episcopal
Bench at the opening of the Parliament (antt, pp. 150, 151),
in which list the vacancies by death in that Bench are noted
on to the end of April 1641, it will be seen that by the end
of that month there were four such vacancies. The Arch-
bishopric of York was vacant, by the death of Neile, since
Oct. 31, 1640, or four days before the opening of Parliament ;
and the Bishoprics of Oxford, Norwich, and Salisbury were
vacant by the deaths of Bancroft, Montague, and Davenant
in February 1640-1 and April 1641. To these four vacan-
cies a fifth had been added by the death of Thornborough,
Bishop of Worcester, July 19, 1641. That the vacancies
had remained so long unfilled, — the Archbishopric of York for
more than a year, and that when, by Laud's imprisonment,
England was left virtually without an Archbishop at all, — was
a striking indication of the state of feeling on the Church ques-
tion and of the King's compulsory deference to that state of
feeling. Imagine, then, the surprise when the news had come
from Scotland that the King was at last bent on filling up those
vacancies. What ! at a time when the very question of the
future existence of Bishops at all in England was vehemently
in debate ? And from Scotland too ? That the King should
take the opportunity of his absence from England at all to
make the appointments was unpleasant ; but that he should
do so from Presbyterian Edinburgh ! It was more than an
insult ; it was a sarcasm. It was as if the King, while giving
Alexander Henderson his hand to kiss, had winked his royal
eye over that reverend Presbyter's back. In short, there had
been remonstrances from the English Commons on the sub-
ject with the King in Edinburgh, and Oliver Cromwell had
carried a motion, by a majority of eighteen, for a conference
1641.] TII K <;I:AM» KKMONSTRANCE. 325
with the Lords to desire them to join in a petition for stopping
the investiture of the intended new Bishops (Oct. 29). The
King, however, had persevered, and either before his leaving
Edinburgh, or within a few days afterwards, the vacant sees
were actually filled up. To the ArchbisJwpric of York was
appointed (Dec. 4) our old friend Williams, so long Bishop
of Lincoln that it was difficult for his contemporaries to give
him his new title. Hall, so long Bishop of Exeter, was made
Bishop of Norwich (Nov. 15); Dr. John Prideaux, Canon of
Christ Church, Oxford, was raised to the Bishopric of Wor-
cester (Nov. 22) ; Skinner, Bishop of Bristol, was translated
to Oxford (Nov. 29) ; and Duppa, Bishop of Chichester, was
translated to Salisbury (Dec. 11). Against Williams's pro-
motion to the Archbishopric, if it were to be filled up at all,
nothing could be said, save that Williams, in taking it, had
parted with his popularity. But two of the other four, viz.
Hall and Skinner, were among the thirteen Bishops whose
impeachment for misdemeanour in the Convocation of 1640
was then before the Lords ; and Hall, despite all the former
respect for him, was now the most conspicuous champion of
High Church Episcopacy. It was an aggravation also that,
by the arrangements made, four vacant sees remained, to
which there might at any time be new appointments.
Williams's late see of Lincoln remained vacant, with Hall's
of Exeter, Skinner's of Bristol, and Duppa's of Chichester.1
This appointment of the new Bishops was not the sole
exhibition of the King's revived mood of majesty at the
time of his return from the north. He insisted on dis-
missing the armed guard which Essex had set round the two
Houses. Such a guard was unnecessary ; he would himself
give them a guard.2 In various minor matters he was politely
obstinate.
In the matter of the Grand Remonstrance, however,
which had so grievously galled him, Charles was unusually
gracious. On the 1st of December, or six days after his
return, he received, at Hampton Court Palace, the deputation
i Common* Journal*, Oct. 29; Pftrl. AMMMfrwuy, 195; Le NOVO'B Fatti.
Hist. II. 924, 925; Forater's Grand « Purl. Hint. II. 940, 941.
326 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
from the Commons appointed to present the terrible docu-
ment, together with a shorter Petition that had been drawn
up to introduce it. The deputation, as named by the Com-
mons, consisted of twelve members, chosen from both sides :
Sir Edward Deering, Sir Kalph Hopton, Lord Fairfax, Lord
Grey of Groby, Sir Simonds D'Ewes, Sir Arthur Ingram, Sir
James Thynne, Sir Christopher Wray, Sir Eichard Wynn, Sir
John Corbet, Sir Arthur Haselrig, and Mr. H. Bellasis. For his
silver voice and for other reasons, Deering was to act as spokes-
man. But, though this was a tempting opportunity, Deering
thought it better to be absent, and the duty of presenting the
Petition and Remonstrance devolved on Sir Kalph Hopton.
The deputation began the interview on their knees, but his
Majesty raised them. Only the Petition was read, the more
unwieldy Remonstrance being left for his Majesty's private
perusal. Once or twice, as the petition was being read, his
Majesty interjected a brisk remark. Thus, after a passage
about malignant persons having a design to change the
established religion, " The Devil take him, whosoever he may
be !" said the King, He gave the deputation his hand to
kiss, and committed them to the Comptroller, who had
good cheer waiting for them ; but, " owing to the weighti-
ness of the business," he put off his answer. He seemed
extremely anxious, however, that the Commons should not
print the Remonstrance till they had received the answer,
and he would fain have had some assurance from Hopton on
this point. Hopton could give him none. And so the
Remonstrance, of which he, doubtless, had a copy already, was
left with his Majesty.1 It is a document worth reading
through yet.2 I will select one or two paragraphs, and mark
in italics one or two passages in these to which the reader
ought to pay attention : —
"181. And now what hope have we but in God, whenas the
only means of our subsistence, and power of reformation, is, under
Him, in the Parliament 1
1 Parl. Hist. II. 942—944 ; Rush- complete in Parl. Hist. II. 943—963 ;
worth, IV. 436—451 ; Forster's Grand Rushworth, IV. 438—451 ; and Rapin,
Remonstrance, 366-372. II. 388—397.
2 See the petition and Remonstrance
1641.] THE GKAND REMONSTRANCE. 327
" 182. But what can we, the Commons, without the conjunction
of the House of Lords ? and what conjunction can we expect there,
when the Bishops and the Recusant Lords are so numerous and
prevalent that they are able to cross and interrupt our best endea-
vours for Reformation, and by that means give advantage to this
malignant party to traduce our proceedings 1
" 183. They infuse into the people that we mean to abolish all
Church Government, and leave every man to his own fancy for the
service and worship of God, absolving him of that obedience which
he owes, under God, to his Majesty; whom we know to be
entrusted with the ecclesiastical law as well as with the temporal,
to regulate all the members of the Church of England by such
rules of order and discipline as are established by Parliament,
which is the Great Council in all of airs, both of Church and State.
" 184. We confess our intention is, and our endeavours have been,
to reduce within bounds that exorbitant power which the Prelates
have assumed unto themselves, so contrary both to the Word
of God and to the Laws of the Land ; to which end we passed the
Bill for removing them from their temporal power and employments,
that so the better they might with meekness apply themselves to
the discharge of their functions; which Bill themselves opposed,
and were the principal instruments of crossing it.
" 185. And we do here declare that it is far from our pur-
pose or desire to let loose the golden reins of Discipline ami Govern-
ment in the Church, to leave private persons or particular congregations
to take up what form of Divine Service they please ; for we hold it
requisite that there should be throughout tJie whole realm a conformity
to that order which the Laws enjoin\ according to the Word of God.
And we desire to unburthen the consciences of men of needless
and superstitious ceremonies, suppress innovations, and take away
the monuments of idolatry.
" 186. And, the better to effect the intended Reformation, we
desire there may be a General Synod of the most grave, pious, learned,
and judicious Divines of this Island, assisted by some from foreign
parts professing the same Religion with us, who may consider of all
things necessary for the peace and good government of the Church,
and represent the results of their consultations to Parliament, to be
there allowed and confirmed, and receive the stamp of authority,
thereby to find passage and obedience throughout the kingdom."
The day after the presentation x>f the Petition and Grand
Remonstrance (Dec. 2) the King, coming to Parliament for
the first time since his return, complained of the want of
confidence in him, and especially of dilatoriness in the Irish
business.1 Accordingly, for the next fortnight the Irish
> King's Speech: Parl. Hut. II. 066, 967.
328 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Insurrection occupied both Houses. Not the less at the
same time were the Commons busy with other discussions.
They discussed the necessity of another guard than that
which the King was willing to give them. They occupied
themselves with inquiries into late Army-plots, with the
project of a Bill for settling the Militia of the kingdom, and
with complaints of that obstructiveness of the Lords which,
experienced all along, had become exasperating now. Daily
there were skirmishes between Hyde, Falkland, Colepepper,
and others of that side, and Pym, Strode, Haselrig, and
other members of the majority. Out of doors, too, the state
of matters was critical. The King was in error if he ima-
gined that his enthusiastic reception on his return implied
acquiescence in whatever he might do. Though Gurney was
mayor, almost all London, from the wealthiest merchants
down to the prentices, were with the Parliament. Cries of
" No Bishops ! " " No Popish Lords ! " were heard in the
streets, and surgings of rough-looking crowds towards West-
minster began to be frequent. A monster petition from the
City, complaining of the delay in the question of Bishops'
votes and the obstruction of the Peers, was brought to the
Commons, Dec. 11, by twelve leading citizens, introduced
by Alderman Pennington. It measured twenty-four yards
in length, and contained about 15,000 names.1
Any blunder on either side might now give the other an
advantage. As Pym never blundered, it was easy to know
who would. On Friday the 14th of December the King came
again to the Lords, the Commons being summoned to meet
him. They were still too slow, he told them, in the pressing
business of relief for Ireland. Then, adverting particularly
to a Bill for pressing soldiers for Ireland which had passed
the Commons and was before the Lords, he was incautious
enough to say he would pass the Bill if it answered his notions
of prerogative, and to recommend that, for this purpose, it
should take such and such a form. Hardly was the King's
back turned when the two Houses were in flame over this
1 Parl. Hist. II. 967, 968 ; Forster's Grand Remonstrance, 372—399.
1 »;il.| THE GRAND RKMONSTKAN 329
breach of the privileges of Parliament Resolutions were
passed by both Houses condemning the act (for in so flagrant
a case the Lords had no option) ; and these resolutions were
embodied two days afterwards (Dec. 16) in a Petitionary
Remonstrance to be presented to the King. It was pre-
sented by a larur»' 'Imputation of Lords and Commons, with
the new Archbishop of York at their head.1
Meanwhile (Dec. 14) the Commons had ordered, by a
majority of 135 to 83, the printing of their grand Petition and
Remonstrance, which the King had not yet answered. His
answer, so called forth, followed as speedily as possible. It
can hardly have been satisfactory to most. Here, for example,
was his Majesty's reply to the Commons on the subject of
the Parliamentary power of Bishops : " For depriving of the
" Bishops of their votes in Parliament, we would have you
" consider that their right is grounded upon the fundamental
" law of the kingdom and constitution of Parliament. This
" we would have you consider ; but, since you desire our con-
" currence herein in a Parliamentary way, we will give you
" no further answer at this time." On the general subject of
Church Reform he was even less complaisant. He was not
unwilling " to call a National Synod " if the Parliament so
advised, but was sorry to hear there was so much work for
such a Synod, inasmuch as he was persuaded there was not
a purer Church on earth than the Church of England at that
time. This purity he was resolved, while he lived, to maintain,
" not only against all invasions of Popery, but also from the
" irreverence of those many Schismatics and Separatists
" wherewith of late this kingdom and this city abounds."
These passages occurred in the answer to the Petition
accompanying the Remonstrance ; but in the answer to the
Remonstrance itself there was this sentence: "We cannot
" without grief of heart, and without some tax upon our-
» Clarendon distinctly says that it face of the fact that the Parliament
was Solicitor-General St. John that ad- requested the King to name hia ad-
vised the King to the imprudent act of risers. It would have been with glou,
interfering with a Bill while it was Mr. Forstor thinks, that ho would have
< m Parliament. Mr. Forster named St. John. Mr. Forstor boliovos
' Remonstrance, p. 400, note) that Colepoppor and Hyde himself wore
thinks this a strange assertion in the the persons stwpoctod at the time.
330 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" self and our Ministers for the not executing of our laws,
" look upon the bold licence of some men in printing of
" pamphlets, in preaching and printing of sermons, so full of
" bitterness and malice against the present Government and
" the laws established." Milton and the Smectymnuans,
among others, might lay these words to heart.1
TUMULTS IN LONDON : ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS'S BLUNDER.
The last fortnight of December 1641, and especially the
Christmas week, was a time of tumult in London. It was a
season of stormy weather at sea and on land, ending towards
Christmas in severe frost and snow. The populace were bois-
terous in the streets, mobbing up from the city through wind
and snow to the neighbourhood of Westminster Hall. There
were also meetings at night in Southwark and elsewhere. For
the crisis was becoming desperate. In the matter of the
breach of Parliamentary 'privilege on the 1 4th, indeed, the
King had become decidedly apologetic. The Lords were
necessarily with the Commons in that matter, and he had seen
his error. But was it true that he had removed Sir William
Balfour from his post of Lieutenant of the Tower, — removed
the trusty Balfour, and appointed in his stead the notorious
Colonel Lunsford ? 2 It was too true. The rumour ran through
the city on the 22nd; and on subsequent days there were
debates in the Commons on the subject, with an agreement to
remonstrate with the King. In this, however, the Lords, on
the ground that the Tower was wholly in his Majesty's hands,
refused to concur, though twenty-two lords protested against
the refusal. Every one saw that the appointment of Lunsford
had a meaning, and it was dreadful to speculate what the
meaning might be. So violent was the feeling on the subject
that, within a day or two, the King cancelled the appointment,
1 Parl. Hist. II. 968 — 979 ; and Rapin, Lunsford given by some Common Coun-
II. 398 — 400. oilmen and other citizens of London in
2 " A man outlawed and most notori- a petition to the Commons,
ous for outrages " is the description of
1641.] TUMULTS IN LONDON. 331
giving Lunsford a knighthood and 500/. in compensation,
and appointing Sir John Byron in his room. The concession
was too late, even had Byron been a popular substitute for
Lunsford. Christmas that year fell on a Saturday. On
Monday the 27th, — Boxing-day, as the Londoners call it
now, and perhaps called it then, — greater crowds of citizens
and prentices than ever were gathered round the two Houses
in Westminster, blocking up the narrow streets in the neigh-
bourhood. As, for several days, there had been alarm at such
gatherings, Whitehall was guarded, and inside were many
King's officers (Cavaliers, as they began about this time to be
called) looking out on the mob with no goodwill. Jeers
passed, taunts between the mob and the soldiers, till at last
the hot-blooded officers sallied out with their swords, and
cut and slashed. There were similar scenes round the two
Houses and about the doors of the Abbey, but especially in
Westminster Hall, which was the chief access to the Houses,
and where the shops and booths, then permitted there, had
been shut up by their proprietors in terror.1
The hero of one of those scenes was no other than Arch-
bishop Williams. He had been Archbishop of York, it is to
be remembered, for little more than three weeks, — a short
time to have enjoyed the dignity of being the only Archbishop
in the House of Peers, and therefore virtually the first man
there.2 Never favourable to an extreme limitation of the
power of Bishops, and having indeed, in his own draft-scheme
of a new constitution for the Church, expressly reserved for
the Bishops their seats in the Lords, he had not had his views on
the point abated by his brief experience of Archiepiscopal glory.
When, therefore, the rabble came round the Houses of Purlia-
1 The following in from tho Lords ' gone ; and they are willing so to do,
Journals, Doc. 27, 1641. "Thoro be- 'but they say they dare not, because
* ing a concourse of people about the ' there is Col. Lunsford, with other
' Parliament doors and the places ad- 'soldiers, in Westminster Hall, that Ho
'joining, tho Gentleman Usher was 'in wait for them with their swords
' directed to go and command them, in ' drawn ; and that some of them that
' the King's name, to be gono, .-UK! <lis ' were going through Westminster Hall
' i>erae themselves to their places of ' homo have boon wounded and cut on
' abode, or else they shall IHJ proceeded ' their heads by tho said soldiers."
' against according to law. The Gentle- * In tho Lords Journals I find almotit
4 man Usher returned thisanswor to tho every committee during tho time under
'House,— That he had commanded tho notice headed by "the L. Archbp. of
'people, in the King's name, to be Yorke."
332 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
ment, crying " No Bishops," " No Bishops/' Williams's indig-
nation at the outrage transcended that of the lay lords. He
was a man of good stately presence, and his hot Welsh
blood was apt to overboil. Accordingly, " the Bishop of
" Lincoln/' says Eushworth, still calling him by his former
title, " coming, along with the Earl of Dover, towards the
" House of Peers, observing a youth to cry out against the
" Bishops, the rest of the citizens being silent, slipt from the
" Earl of Dover, and laid hands on him ; whereupon the
"citizens withheld the youth from him, and about one
" hundred of them, coming about his lordship, hemmed him
" in that he could not stir ; and then all of them with a loud
" voice cried out ' No Bishops/ and so let his lordship, the
" Bishop, go." We learn from other authorities that not only
was the Archbishop jostled and hustled, but his robes were
torn. " But," continues Eushworth, " there being three or
"four gentlemen walking near, one of them, named David
" Hyde, a reformado in the late army against the Scots, and
" now appointed to go in some command into Ireland, began
" to bustle, and said he would cut the throats of those round-
" headed dogs that bawled against Bishops (which passionate
" expression of his, as far as I could ever learn, was the first
" minting of that term or compellation of Roundheads which
" afterwards grew so general), and, saying so, drew his sword,
" and desired the other gentlemen to second him ; but, they
" refusing, he was apprehended by the citizens." Lunsford
himself, however, was at hand ; and during the rest of the
day he and some thirty or forty more were in possession of
Westminster Hall and the neighbourhood, charging among
the crowd every now and then with drawn swords.1
But who could have guessed what was to follow ? Fuming
with rage from his hustling on the 27th, Archbishop Williams
had shut himself up in his residence, the Deanery of West-
minster, thinking what he should do next. What he did do
only proved what extraordinary blunders the most experienced
1 Lords Journals, Dec. 27 et seq. ; Fuller's Church History, III. 430, 431 ;
Rushworth IV. 459—464 ; Clarendon, Mr. Forster's Arrest of the Five Members,
History, pp. 135—140 ; Rapin, II. 403 ; pp. 67—81.
1641.] ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS'S BLUNDER. 333
man may commit when goaded beyond himself. A guard of
soldiers was found in the churchyard of the Abbey ; and, when
it was asked by whose command they were there, the answer
was " By the Lord Archbishop of York's." This assumption
of military authority was being remarked on by the Commons,
and would probably itself have led to some action against the
Archbishop, when he saved them the trouble ty a more
flagrant piece of imprudence, which involved not only himself,
but also most of his Episcopal colleagues. Inviting all his
fellow-Prelates that chanced to be in town at the moment to
a conference in the Deanery, Williams proposed that they
should agree in a joint protest, — which, dipping his pen in the
ink, he proceeded then and there to draw up. In this docu-
ment, addressed to the King and the House of Lords, the
petitioners declare, after some preamble, that, inasmuch as
they " have been at several times violently menaced, affronted,
" and assaulted by multitudes of people in their coming to
" perform their services in that honourable House, and lately
" chased away and put in danger of their lives," they dare
not again sit and vote in the House until they are secured
against the recurrence of such insults ; and then, observing
that " their fears are not built upon phantasies and conceits,
" but upon such grounds and objects as may well terrify men
" of resolution and much constancy," they formally protest
before his Majesty and the House of Peers " against all laws,
" orders, votes, resolutions, and determinations, as in them-
" selves null and of none effect, which, in their absence, since
" the 27th of this instant month of December 1641, have
" already passed, as likewise against all such as shall here-
" after pass, in that most honourable House during the time
" of this their forced and violent absence from the said
" most honourable House." They conclude by desiring his
Majesty to command the Clerk of the Peers to enter the
Protest among his records. That a set of sane men, ex-
perienced in laws and forms, should have joined in such an
act might appear incredible. Nevertheless, trusting apparently
that Williams, who had once been Lord Keeper, knew what he
was about, all the Prelates present signed the Protest, and one
334 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
or two others, who were not present, but within reach, added
their names afterwards, almost without reading the docu-
ment. Accordingly, when Williams, with the paper in his
pocket, went to Whitehall to present it to the King, there
were twelve signatures to it. Williams's own was first ; and
under it were those of Morton of Durham, Wright of Lich-
field and Coventry, Hall of Norwich, Owen of St. Asaph,
Pierce of Bath and Wells, Coke of Hereford, Skinner of
Oxford, Wren of Ely, Goodman of Gloucester, Towers of
Peterborough, and Owen of Llandaff.1
It would have been well for the Bishops had Charles put
the document in the fire. Unfortunately, the Lord Keeper,
Littleton, chanced to be present ; and Charles, not foreseeing
the consequences, handed it to him to be recorded in the
Peers' books. Duly, therefore, on Thursday Dec. 30, the
Lord Keeper announced to the House his Majesty's command,
and the Protest was read. Instantly the Lords requested a
conference with the Commons on a matter of " high and
dangerous consequence," not affecting the Lords only, but
" extending to the deep entrenching upon the fundamental
privileges and being of Parliament." The conference was
held, and the Commons saw their opportunity. Here they
had been for some months moving Bills for the exclusion of
Bishops from Parliament. Unsuccessful in that, they had, by
way of a step in the same direction, sought to incapacitate
thirteen of the Bishops by a special impeachment on account
of their misdemeanours in the Convocation of 1640. In this
too they were meeting with delay and obstruction. But now,
by an event perfectly providential, power was put into their
hands. Twelve Bishops, among whom were ten of those
already impeached, had walked into a trap made by them-
selves. They had walked into a trap and shut the door.
They had done an act which the Lords themselves were
bound to punish. On the afternoon of that same day, accord-
ingly, a message having been brought up from the Commons
by Mr. Glynn, accusing the twelve Prelates of high treason for
1 Clar. Hist. pp. 140, 141 ; Eushworth, IV. 468 et sen. ; Parl. Hist. II. 993 et
seq. ; Fuller's Church Hist. III. 431—433.
1641.] ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS'S BLUNDER. 335
endeavouring in their Protest " to subvert the fundamental
laws of the realm and the being of Parliament," the Lords
immediately ordered the twelve to be brought before them.
Arrested that evening, brought in one by one by the Gentle-
man Usher, and informed of the accusation against them,
they pleaded ignorance and haste, disclaimed all treason-
able intention, and besought mercy. Thereupon, about eight
o'clock, ten of them were sent off through the dark frosty
evening as prisoners to the Tower, — the other two, Morton
and Wright, on account of their age and infirmities, being
committed to the milder, but more expensive, custody of the
Gentleman Usher. Another Bishop, Curie of Winchester, who
was then in the House, and who was one of the thirteen pre-
viously impeached, was required to disown the Protest which
his brethren had signed, before he was allowed to continue in
the House.1
Thus, on the last day of the year 1641, Laud, in his prison
in the Tower, knew that he had as his companions there, in
other rooms, a whole bevy of the Bishops whom he had left
at large about a year before, including his old enemy Williams.
They were to be his companions there for eighteen weeks.
Interchanges of courteous messages passed between Laud and
them during this time ; but the old man could not but enjoy the
joke when he was shown a caricature in which Williams was
represented as the decoy-duck, set at liberty, according to the
practice of farmers in his old Lincoln diocese, that he might
inveigle wilder ducks into the net. Indeed, by this act of
Williams, England was all but cleared of Bishops for the
time. Only eight Prelates now remained at large : Curie of
Winchester, Warner of Rochester, Bridgman of Chester,
Roberts of Bangor, Mainwaring of St. David's, Duppa of
Salisbury, Prideaux of Worcester, and Potter of Carlisle.
This last, the popular or " Puritan " Bishop, was on his death-
bed He died Jan. 1641-2. Of the others, most of whom, if
i Lords Journals, Doc. 30, 1641. The others expressed penitence,— Mor-
Tho Bishop* who seem to have boon ton saying that " this was the greatest
most resolute in their appearance were misery that over befell him," and Hall,
Williams himself, Wr.-u. und Coke. that ''this was the heaviest affliction
They simply declined saying anything. that over came u|*>n him."
336 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
not all, had only escaped Williams's decoy by the accident of
their not being in town at the moment, several were already
in virtual retirement. In fact, from December 1641, though
the question of Episcopacy was still so far from being settled
that subsequent appointments to Bishoprics, presently to be
noticed, did take place, Bishops as a body disappear for
nearly twenty years from the History of England.1
CHARLES'S COUP D'ETAT, OR ATTEMPTED ARREST OF THE
FIVE MEMBERS.
After the tumults of Christmas 1641, and the mishap to the
twelve Bishops, Charles appears to have been at the end of his
wits. For a day or two there seems to have been a thought
of yielding everything, and bringing Pym into the King's
counsels as the only pilot who could weather the storm.
Only for a day or two, however. Immediately there was a
rebound.
Since the King's return from Scotland he had been trying
to remodel his Privy Council so as to bring its composition
nearer to his own ideal. Thus, on the very day after his
return (Nov. 26), not content with having already deprived
Sir Henry Vane the elder of his office of Treasurer of the
Household and conferred that office on Lord Savile, he had
ejected Vane from his Ministry altogether, by depriving him
of the Secretaryship of State : which office (or rather the
joint Secretaryship vacant by Windebank's flight) he bestowed
on the faithful Mr. Nicholas, thenceforward known as Sir
Edward Nicholas, or Mr. Secretary Nicholas, and having Mr.
Sidney Bere as his under-secretary. Here, consequently, by
way of sample, was the attendance at a Council-meeting at
Whitehall on the llth of December: the King, the Lord
Privy Seal (i.e. the Earl of Manchester), the Duke of Eich-
mond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Marquis of Hamilton,
the Lord Chamberlain (i.e. the Earl of Essex, who had super-
seded the Earl of Pembroke in that office), the Earl of Dorset,
l Forster's Air est of the Five Members, pp. 100—103 ; Fuller's Church Hist. III. 434.
1641-2.] CHARLES'S COUP D'ETAT. 337
the Earl of Bristol, the Earl of Holland, the Earl of Berkshire,
Viscount Saye and Sele, Lord Savile, Lord Dunsraore, Lord
Goring, Lord Newburgh, Mr. Comptroller (i.e. Sir Thomas
Jermyn), Mr. Secretary Nicholas, and the Lord Chief Justice
of Common Pleas (i.e. Sir John Banks).1 It is clear that this
was not yet a working Ministry to Charles's mind ; and, in
fact, as we know, his real advisers at the time were persons
not nominally in the Ministry at all. The chief of these
were Lord Digby, Lord Falkland, Sir John Colepepper, and
Mr. Hyde. To bring the last three, as leaders of the Opposi-
tion in the Commons, openly into the Ministry had for some
time been Charles's intention ; and just about New Year's
Day 1641-2 that intention was carried into effect so far
as Falkland and Colepepper were concerned. Falkland was to
be one of the principal Secretaries of State, or, in other words,
joint Secretary with Nicholas ; and Colepepper was to take the
Chancellorship of the Exchequer, vacant since the resignation
of that office by Lord Cottington, and was to hold the office
" for life." Although the appointments were not, as we
should now say, gazetted till about a week into January, they
had been virtually made on New Year's Day. On that day both
Falkland and Colepepper took their oaths as Privy Coun-
cillors.2 The King was very anxious to bring Mr. Hyde
also into the Council and Ministry ; but, though Hyde
strongly recommended his friend Falkland to take office, and
was the means of overcoming Falkland's scruples, he pre-
ferred remaining without office himself in the meantime.
Accordingly Hyde, as well as his friend Lord Digby, remained
out of the nominal Ministry.8 There was brought into it,
however, by way of compensation, the loyal young Earl of
Southampton. He was sworn of the Privy Council and took
his seat there Jan. 3, 1641-2.
The New Year's Day, Jan. 1, 1641-2, on which Falkland
and Colepepper took their seats in the Privy Council, was a
1 Minuto of Council mooting of this Privy Councillors a licence, dated Jan. 1 ,
date in State Paper Office. 1641-2, to a Thos. Filbrick to travel
•Mr. Former's Arrt* of the Five abroad (8. P. 0. document of that date).
Member*, p. 111. I find both Falkland > Clar. 136, 137 (Hist.), and 988, 939
and Colopepper signing along with other ( Lif o).
VOL. II 7.
338 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Saturday. On the previous Thursday, Dec. 30, the very day
of the imprisonment of the twelve Bishops, Pym had warned
the Commons, within closed doors, of some " design " to
be executed that very day upon the House of Commons, for
the frustration of which it was necessary that they should
apply to the City for a guard of trained bands. Pym's ex-
pressions being enigmatical, and the information on which
he acted being such as he could not properly divulge, the
Commons were contented that day with a new petition to the
King for a guard under Essex. The following day, however,
Denzil Holies, who had delivered the petition verbally to the
King, having reported that his Majesty required it to be in
writing, the Commons, while drawing up the petition, required
three of their body, who were justices of the peace for West-
minster, to set armed watches at convenient places round the
House, and at the same time ordered a number of halberds to
be brought into the House for the use of members in case of
extremity. This was on Friday, the last day of the year ; and,
the next day being New Year's Day, and the day after that
Sunday, there was no meeting of the House till Monday
Jan. 3. Nothing had happened, and Pym's information
seemed to have been defective.1
But, though he had been wrong as to the day, Pym was
right in fact. On the morning of Monday, the 3rd of January,
the two Houses met as usual. In the Commons there was
read the King's answer to their petition of the preceding
Friday. If his own general assurance that he would protect
them was not enough, he would give them such a guard as they
wanted. But he did meanwhile give them that general
assurance : " We do engage unto you solemnly the word of a
" King that the security of all and every one of you from
" violence is, and shall ever be, as much our care as the pre-
" servation of us and our children." 2 While this was being
read in the Commons, what was passing in the other House ?
This was what was passing : — The Attorney-General, Sir
Edward Herbert, having been called upon by the Lord Keeper
1 Mr. Forster's Arrest of the Five 2 gee Answer itself in Parl. Hist. II.
Members, pp. 105—112. 1004, 1005.
1641-2.] CHARLES'S COUP D'ETAT. 339
to make a communication with which his Majesty had
entrusted him, stood up at the Clerk's table, and, in the name
of his Majesty, presented Articles of High Treason against
Lord Kimbolton (Viscount Mandeville), a member of that
House, and Mr. Denzil Holies, Sir Arthur Haselrig, Mr. John
Pym, Mr. John Hampden, and Mr. William Strode, members
of the House of Commons. The Articles were seven in
number. The first was a general accusation of having
" traitorously endeavoured to subvert the fundamental laws
and government of this kingdom " ; the second, an accusa-
tion of having traitorously aspersed his Majesty and his
Government, so as to make him odious ; the third, an accusa-
tion of having tampered with the army ; the fourth, an accu-
sation of having " traitorously invited and encouraged a
foreign power [the Scots] to invade his Majesty's kingdom
of England " ; and the other three Articles related to recent
events, including the Christmas tumults. The Attorney-
General expressed his Majesty's desire that a Secret Com-
mittee should be appointed to examine the evidence which
his Majesty would produce in support of the charges, and
that meanwhile the accused should be taken into safe custody.
The Lords, though in no small agitation, behaved firmly.
They listened to Lord Ximbolton, who, standing up in his
place in the House, hotly denied the charges and challenged
investigation. Instead of appointing the Secret Committee
required, they appointed a committee to inquire into pre-
cedents " touching the regularity of the accusation," and they
took no steps for the arrest of the accused. And here, accord-
ing to Clarendon, Lord Digby, who was the secret mover of
the whole business, utterly failed to do his part. " The Lord
I >L'by," says Clarendon, " had promised the King to move the
" House for the commitment of Lord Kimbolton as soon as
" the Attorney-General should have accused him ; which, if
" he had done it, would probably have raised a very hot dis-
" pute in the House, when many would have joined him.
" On the contrary, he seemed the most surprised and ]». i pi, \, ,1
" with the Attorney's impeachment; and, sitting at that
" time next the Lord Kimbolton, with whom lu- i>ivtcn<U'il to
340 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
" live with much friendship, he whispered him in the ear with
" some commotion (as he had a rare talent at dissimulation)
" ' that the King was very mischievously advised, and it
" ' should go very hard but he would know whence that
" ' counsel proceeded ; in order to which, and to prevent
" ' farther mischief, he would go immediately to his Majesty.' "
So saying, Lord Digby left the House. Meanwhile the great
news had reached the Commons. While that House, after
hearing the King's answer to their petition for a guard, was
proceeding with other business, word was brought that several
persons were then at the chambers of Mr. Pym,Mr. Holies, Mr.
Hampden, and other members, seizing their papers, and sealing
up trunks and doors of wardrobes. The House immediately
ordered the arrest of such persons, and sent to request the
Lords to confer with them on this breach of Parliamentary
privilege. The conference was held, and out of it grew a
farther conference between committees appointed by both
Houses. While the committees were absent on this business,
however, the serjeant-at-arms sent in notice that he had a
message to the Commons from the King. Admitted to the bar
of the House without his mace, he delivered his message. It
was that he was commanded to " require of Mr. Speaker " five
gentlemen, members of the House, and, " these gentlemen
being delivered," to "arrest them, in his Majesty's name, of high
treason." He concluded by naming the five, — "Mr. Holies,
Sir Arthur Haselrig, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, Mr. William
Strode." The serjeant-at-arms having withdrawn, the House,
who knew by this time what had already happened in the
Lords, appointed a deputation of their own number, consisting
of Colepepper, Lord Falkland, Sir Philip Stapleton, and Sir
John Hotham, to wait upon his Majesty and inform him that
his message was one of great consequence/concerning as it did
the privilege of Parliament, but that they would take care that
the five gentlemen named should be " ready to answer any
legal charge laid against them." Accordingly, Pym, Hampden,
Holies, Haselrig, and Strode were, one by one, enjoined by
the Speaker, in the House's name, to attend duly in their
places till the matter should be decided. Some farther orders
1641-2.] CHARLES'S COUP D'ETAT. 341
of both Houses, growing out of their conference, ended the
business of this important day.1
But next day, Tuesday Jan. 4, was still more important.
Pym, Hampden, Holies, Haselrig, and Strode were duly in
their places, according to injunction, and the forenoon in
both Houses was spent in discussions and orders arising out
of what had occurred. Each of the five accused in the Com-
mons spoke at length in his own defence, all " protesting their
innocency " ; and, about twelve o'clock, the House adjourned
for an hour. When the House had resumed its sitting between
one and two o'clock, and it had been officially noted by the
Speaker's order that the five accused had again taken their
places, and some members were speaking of ominous signs
of armed gatherings round the King at Whitehall, there
occurred the unparalleled incident which is thus abruptly
noticed in the Commons Journals : —
"His Majesty came into the House, and took Mr. Speaker's
chair.
" Gentlemen,
" I am very sorry to have this occasion to come unto
you * * *"
Here the entry breaks off, as if the excitement of the scene
had paralysed the clerks at their work. But there remain
ample and exact accounts of the scene by various hands,
substantially to this effect : — When the House was already
full, and the five accused had taken their seats, but, in con-
sequence of secret information just received that the King
meant to come in person to demand their arrest, a debate
had arisen whether they should not retire, word was brought
that the King had actually left Whitehall at the head of a
large body of armed men and was approaching the House.
Immediately it was urged that, to prevent the obvious con-
sequences of an attempt to seize them in the House, the
five should withdraw. They all did so willingly, with the
exception of Strode, who had to be forced out by his friends.
i Lords Journals, Jan. 3, 1641-2 ; worth, IV. 473—476 ; Part. Hist. II.
Commons Journals, same date ; Rush- 1005—1009 ; Clar. Hist. p. 143.
342 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
They had not got to the barge waiting for them at the river-
side when Charles, with a band of some four or five hundred
attendants, consisting of his own usual guard together with
pensioners, army officers, &c., armed with swords, pistols, and
other weapons, arrived at Westminster Hall. The shops and
stalls there had been shut up in alarm ; and, the armed men
having formed themselves into two lines along the whole
length of the Hall, the King advanced along the lane so
formed, and, ascending the stairs at the other end leading to
the Commons House, passed through the lobby into that
House, " where never King was, as they say, but once Henry
the Eighth." A considerable number of officers and others
pressed after him, as far as the door, which they forcibly kept
open that they might see what passed within. Captain
David Hyde, the inventor of the term " Eoundhead," stood
just outside the door, holding his sword upright in its scab-
bard ; and just inside, leaning against the door, was the
Scottish Earl of Eoxburgh. When the King entered, followed
only by his nephew, the Elector Palatine, all the members
rose and took off their hats, the King also removing his.
Glancing at the place on the right near the bar where Pym
used to sit, but not seeing his well-known face there, the
King passed up, still glancing right and left, and the mem-
bers bowing, till he came to the Speaker's chair; where,
Lenthall stepping forth to meet him, he said, " Mr. Speaker,
I must borrow your chair a little," and so stood on the step
of the chair, but did not sit down. There was a long pause ;
and then the King, who usually spoke indistinctly, and with
much stammering, addressed the House in a speech which,
fortunately, John Eushworth, the assistant-clerk of the
House, had sufficient presence of mind, or sense of duty, to
take down as it was spoken, in shorthand. " Gentlemen,"
he said, " I am sorry for this occasion of coming unto you.
" Yesterday I sent a serjeant-at-arms upon a very important
" occasion, to apprehend some that by my command were
" accused of high treason ; whereunto I did expect obedience,
" and not a message." Then, after some words to the effect
that in cases of treason there could be no privilege, he
1641-2.] CHARLES'S COUP D'ETAT. 343
continued, " Therefore I am come to know if any of those
persons that were accused are here." Then, looking round,
he said by way of parenthesis, " I do not see any of them :
I think I should know them." There was another sentence,
to the effect that the House could not be in a right way while
such persons were in it, ending " Therefore I am come to tell
you that I must have them, wheresoever I find them."
Then again, interrupting himself, the King called out " Is
Mr. Pym here ? " to which nobody made answer. Turning
to the Speaker, who was standing by the chair, his Majesty
asked him whether any of the persons accused were in the
House, and, if so, where. " May it please your Majesty,"
said Leuthall, kneeling, " I have neither eyes to see nor
" tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased
" to direct me, whose servant I am here ; and I humbly beg
" your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer
" than this to what your Majesty is pleased to demand of
" me." The King replied, " Well, well ! 'tis no matter : I
think my eyes are as good as another's," and continued to
look about. Not finding what he wanted, he resumed : " Well,
" since I see all my birds are flown, I do expect from you
" that you will send them unto me as soon as they return
" hither," adding a few words, chiefly in repetition of phrases
already uttered, and concluding, " otherwise I must take
" my own course to find them." Then, descending from
where he was, he left the House, with much show of pas-
sion, followed by the Prince Palatine, but not without
hearing loud cries, Privilege ! Privilege ! shot after him by
many of the members as he passed through their ranks.1
One fancies Cromwell's face on the occasion, and how it
looked.
What might have been the consequence had the Five
members been present, and the King had called in his
armed followers to seize them, can hardly be imagined.
Not improbably there would have been a general strife on
the floor of the House, in which the members would have
1 Common* Journals of dato in uuea- (including Kushworth's nrii/iual notes),
Won; Rushw.rth. IV. 177. 17- : hurl M>
1 1. 1009-1011 ; but see, for a con- pp. 179-195.
spectus and digest of all the account*
344 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
been overpowered and many of them killed, but the King
himself might have fared badly.1 As it was, the happy pre-
caution of the absence of the Five converted the attempted
coup d'dtat into a failure. It was a failure so egregious that
the King must almost immediately have repented of his act.
It is true he maintained the high vein of kingly indignation
for a day or two more. He sent for John Eushworth, and,
having procured from him a copy of his speech, extended
from the shorthand notes which Eushworth had taken in
the House, he amended the speech in a few particulars and
had it published. He issued a proclamation for the arrest
of the Five wherever they might chance to be. Nay, know-
ing that they were in the City, he went into the City himself,
to talk with the Mayor and Corporation, dine with one of the
Sheriffs, and ascertain whether the City would to any extent
stand by him against the Parliament. Digby, knowing the
very house in Coleman Street where the Five were hid, even
proposed to go, with Lunsford and a chosen band of deter-
mined men, and take them by force or leave them dead. But
all was in vain. The City, at first panic-stricken, had roused
itself in universal commotion round the five celebrities it
sheltered. To the cry of Arm ! Arm ! which had run through
the streets and into the suburbs, as many as 140,000 are
said to have responded, armed in every fashion ; and a tem-
porary commander for this force, if it should be required,
was at hand in Philip Skippon, a plain veteran who had
served in the Low Countries, originally as a waggoner to Sir
Francis Vere, but, having risen to a captaincy, had become
a teacher of fencing and the pike and musket exercise in
London, and was now well known and popular in the City
as Captain of the Artillery Garden.2
The conduct of the Parliament meanwhile was masterly.
Meeting on the day after the outrage, to declare it a
breach of privilege, and the like, the Commons had ad-
1 According to D'Ewes, the plan waiting, and there given them the sig-
agreed upon, had the Five been in the nal. But D'Ewes asks whether it is
House and the House had refused to likely that they would have waited long
give them up, was for his Majesty to enough to see his Majesty safe,
have retired back to the entrance lobby, 2 Kushworth . IV. 478—480 : Walker's
where his most eager followers were Hist, of Independency, Part I. p. 116.
1641-2.] KING AWAY FROM LONDON. 345
journed their sittings for six days; having ordered, how-
ever, that a committee, which all members might attend,
should meet meanwhile daily at Guildhall or elsewhere in
the City. The Lords also adjourned ; so that virtually, for six
days, the Parliament was within the City of London. In
short, the King's own friends in the City had to advise him
that nothing could be done. His reluctance to believe this
was shown by his reissuing (Jan. 8) a proclamation for the
arrest of the Five. This was met on the part of the Com-
mons' committee in the City by a reply which justified pro-
spectively whatever the citizens might find it necessary to do
in defence, and by an order constituting Skippon Major-
General of the Militia of the City, with special instructions
to guard the Tower. At length, on the 10th of January,
convinced that further proceedings were hopeless, and not
able to abide the spectacle of the reassembling of Parliament
in Westminster, with the Five in triumph in the midst of
them, Charles left Whitehall (which he was to see no more
till his last return to it), and went first to Hampton Court,
and thence to Windsor. He was accompanied by the Queen,
the Prince of Wales, the Prince Elector, Secretary Nicholas,
and a few lords.1
KING AWAY FROM LONDON : PARLIAMENT MASTER OF THE FIELD :
BISHOPS EXCLUSION BILL PASSED : THE MILITIA QUESTION.
The King having withdrawn, Parliament was master of the
field. Accordingly, from its triumphant reassembling on the
llth of January, with the Five members in the midst, con-
veyed with shouts and cheers up the river from the City, there
were two months of almost uninterrupted progress on their
part, the King only hearing of their proceedings as he moved
about from place to place, and having intercourse with them
by message and letter.
First of all, there was the sweep of revenge against the
» The event* between the 4th and detail by Mr. Forater: Arrett of the
the llth of Jan., here oompreaaed into Five Member*, pp. 195—387.
unu ur two paragraphs, are narrated in
346 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
agents, or supposed agents, in the late attempted coup d'dtat.
Attorney-General Herbert, Lord Digby, the Duke of Rich-
mond, Sir John Byron, Colonel Lunsford, and others, were all
struck at, or threatened. An example, collaterally, was made
of Sir Edward Deering, whose recent backing towards the
King's side on the Grand Remonstrance, and even on the
question of Bishops, had lost him his former popularity,
and who had brought himself under censure by publishing
some of his speeches in the House, with accompanying re-
flections, intended to set himself right with the public. The
book was voted scandalous and dishonourable to the House,
and ordered to be burnt by the hangman ; Deering himself
was expelled the House, and committed to the Tower for a
few days ; and a new writ was issued for the County of Kent
(Feb. 2).1 And Deering's case was but a sample. " Malignants
and evil counsellors " was the phrase that now went and came
between the two Houses. It was a phrase that hung over
the heads of many more than were as yet denounced indi-
vidually.2 Even the Queen began to be named as a fit object
for impeachment.
But the Commons took farther advantage of the occasion
than by merely denouncing individual malignants. They
brought forward again the questions they had formerly been
pressing. They besieged the Lords more vehemently with
those questions than ever before ; they dashed them, as it were,
against the doors of that House, with calls to it either to
cease the policy of obstruction, or to be obstructive still and
take the consequences. This determination of the Commons
either to hurry the Lords with them, or to sweep through
them and past them, was specially apparent in a conference
between the two Houses on the 25th of January. The
conference was nominally occasioned by new petitions for
Reformation in Church and State which had been sent in
1 Commons Journals, Feb. 2, 1641-2. original— matiis ignis, "bad fire," and
TTT T?S? "* to Fuller (Church Hist- malum lignum, "bad wood." But the
III. 443), who seems, however, only to word occurs at least seventy years
say here what others were saying, the before this date in Knox's History of
word malignant was first coined in Eng- the Reformation in Scotland. It may
land in or about 1642. He gives two have been imported from Scotland into
fantastic derivations of it, or of its Latin England.
1641-2.] KING AWAY FROM LONDON. 347
from various English counties ; but really it was on the
general state of affairs. Pym, who was the spokesman of
the Commons, made an address to the Lords, after the peti-
tions had been read, the key-word of which was Obstruction.
He played upon this word ; he iterated and reiterated it, with
that sense of the importance of a well-chosen phrase which
marks the accustomed orator. There was Obstruction, he
said, everywhere and in every direction. There was Obstruc-
tion to Reformation in matters of Religion ; there was
Obstruction in Trade ; there was Obstruction to the Relief
of Ireland ; there was Obstruction to Prosecution of De-
linquents ; there was general Obstruction to the proceedings
of Parliament ; and there was Obstruction to providing for
the Defence of the Kingdom. Every time that the word
" Obstruction " passed Pym's lips, it must have been like
a lash administered to the Peers. But he did not leave his
intention to be inferred. " I am now come to a conclusion,"
he aaid in peroration, " and I have nothing to propound to
" your lordships by way of request or desire from the House
" of Commons. I doubt not but your judgment will tell you
" what is to be done : your consciences, your honours, your
" interests, will call upon you for the doing of it. The Com-
" mons will be glad to have your concurrence and help in
" saving of the kingdom ; but, if they fail of it, it should not
" discourage them in doing their duty. And, whether the
" kingdom be lost or saved (but I hope, through God's bless-
" ing, it will be saved), they shall be sorry that the story
" of this present Parliament should tell posterity that, in
" so great a danger and extremity, the House of Commons
" should be inforced to save the kingdom alone, and that the
" House of Peers should have no part in the honour of the
" preservation of it." This was strong language ; but it was
followed by stronger. In a message from the Commons to
the Lords (Feb. 1), requesting them to join the Commons in a
new petition to the King respecting the charge of the Forts
and Militia of the kingdom, it was distinctly intimated that
the Lords "must not expect the Commons to come to tin-in
again on this business," and a request was made that those
348 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
lords who concurred with the Commons should announce
their concurrence, that they might be known.1
All London and the country round had caught Pym's
watchword of " Obstruction." About the most significant
token of this was a petition brought to the Commons, Feb. 4,
from " the Gentlewomen, Tradesmen's Wives, and many
" others of the Female Sex, all inhabitants of the City of
" London and the suburbs thereof." The petition was actually
brought to the doors of the House by a large deputation of
those who had signed it, headed by a Mrs. Ann Stagg, the
wife of a well-to-do brewer. When the petition was read, it
might well have seemed, from its high and passionate key,
that it had actually been composed by women. " Notwith-
" standing that many worthy deeds have been done by you,"
it said, " great danger and fear do still attend us, and will, as
" long as Popish Lords and superstitious Bishops are suffered
" to have their voice in the House of Peers, that accursed
" and abominable idol of the Mass suffered in the kingdom,
" and that arch-enemy of our prosperity and reformation
" [Archbishop Laud] lieth in the Tower, yet not receiving
" his deserved punishment." Again, concerning Ireland,
and especially the outrages on women in the insurrection
there : " Have we not just cause to fear they will prove fore-
" runners of our ruin, except Almighty God, by the wisdom
" and care of this Parliament, be pleased to succour us, our
" husbands and children, which are as dear and tender to us
" as the lives and blood of our hearts ? To see them murdered
" and mangled and cut to pieces before our eyes ; to see our
" children dashed against the stones, and the mother's milk
" mingled with the infant's blood running down the streets ;
" to see our houses on flaming fire over our heads ! Oh ! how
" dreadful would this be ! " The petition ends with reasons
why the petitioners have done a thing so unusual in their sex
as to meddle with politics. " It may be thought strange, and
" unbeseeming our sex," they say, " to show ourselves by way
" of petition to this Honourable Assembly ; but, the matter
1 Parl. Hist. II. 1049 et seq. ; Rushworth, IV. 508 et seg. ; Commons Journals,
Feb. 1, 1641-2.
1641-2.] BISHOPS EXCLUSION BILL PASSED. 349
" being rightly considered of, the right and interest we have
" in the common and public cause of the Church, it will,
" as we conceive, under correction, be found a duty com-
" manded and required : — 1. Because Christ hath purchased
" us at as dear a rate as he hath done men, and therefore
" requireth the like obedience, for the same mercy, as of men.
" 2. Because in the free enjoying of Christ in his own laws,
" and a flourishing estate of the Church and Commonwealth,
"consisteth the happiness of women as well as men. 3.
" Because women are sharers in the common calamities that
" accompany both Church and Commonwealth, when oppres-
" sion is exercised over the Church and Kingdom wherein
" they live, and unlimited power given to the Prelates to
" exercise authority over the consciences of women as well as
" men : witness Newgate, Smithfield, and other places of
" persecution, wherein women as well as men have felt the
" smart of their fury." ]
The Women's Petition against Bishops, and two other
petitions to the same effect presented about the same time
by the Prentices and Sailors of London and the Street
Porters, became afterwards, of course, a fertile subject of jest
with the Royalists. It is worth noting, however, as at least
a coincidence, that it was on the very day after the Women's
Petition that the Lords made that great concession which
had been so long demanded by the Commons in vain. On
Saturday, the 5th of February 1641-2, the Bill for exclud-
ing Bishops from Parliament was read in the Lords for the
third time, and, after debate, passed by that House, only the
Bishops of Winchester, Rochester, and Worcester (Curie,
Warner, and Prideaux,) dissenting. Here is the formal entry
of this important fact as it stands in the Lords Journals :
"Hodie 3a vice lecta est Bttla, An Act for Disabling all
" persons in Holy Orders to exercise any Temporal Jurisdic-
" tion or Authority : And, being put to the Question whether
" this Bill, with the Alterations and Additions, should pass
" as a Law, it was resolved it should pass as a Law." >J
i Parl. Hint. II. 1072—1078. > Lords Journals of date.
350 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
Thus, after nearly a year of swaying to and fro between
the two Houses, had the first of the great measures of
Church Keform pressed by the movement party in the Com-
mons been pushed through the House of Lords. Great, of
course, was the popular rejoicing. The question of the
future constitution of the Church of England, it is true,
remained still undecided ; but the exclusion of the Bishops
from Parliament was regarded as a step that would make all
the rest easy. But would the King give his assent to the
Bill ? This was now the point.
The King, who had been alternating between Windsor and
Hampton Court, still keeping away from London, but in daily
communication with Parliament on one subject or another,
was in a state of mind in which it was almost a matter of
indifference to him what Bills he now passed or did not pass.
His chief adviser in the cowp d'tftat, Lord Digby, had fled
beyond seas for his life ; but Charles had around him, or
in communication with him, such counsellors as Colepepper,
Falkland, Hyde, Nicholas, the Duke of Eichmond, the
Marquis of Hertford, and the Earls of Newcastle and South-
ampton. The Queen's influence too was greater than ever.
As the result of the consultations held in the little royal
conclave, it was determined that nothing special should be
done at present in the way of farther opposition to Parlia-
ment ; but that (1) the Queen should be sent quietly out of
the kingdom, with the crown jewels, on pretext of accom-
panying into Holland her eldest daughter, recently married
to Prince William of Orange, but really to purchase arms ;
and (2) that the King should then gradually retire into the
north, leaving Parliament to its courses, and waiting for time
and means to retrieve all by war. This being the plan, what
mattered it, save in respect of the King's own notions of
decorum, how much he should yield in addition to what had
been yielded already ? On this principle it was that, since
his departure from Whitehall, he had seemed to acquiesce in
his new position as a monarch bound to succumb. He had
offered, for example, to waive all proceedings against the
1641-2.] BISHOPS EXCLUSION BILL PASSED. 351
Five members ; and, when the Commons insisted on a full
legal investigation into the charges against those members,
he had begged them to let bygones be bygones. Again, he
had given his consent to the removal of Sir John Byron
from the Lieutenancy of the Tower and the appointment of
Sir John Conyers in his room.1
Would his complacency carry him so far as an assent to
tin- Hill for excluding Bishops from Parliament and political
power ? Here, at all events, would he not make a stand ?
Most men expected that he would, and nearly all the faith-
ful of his own party thought that he should. For a few
days, accordingly, he did resist. But judge of the sorrow
and consternation among the friends of the Church every-
where, and judge above all of poor Laud's feelings in the
Tower, when it became known that on the 13th of February
the King had yielded. On that day he gave his assent by
commission to two Bills together, — the one a Bill for pressing
soldiers for Ireland, the other the Bishops Exclusion Bill.
Where had this lapse of the King from his duty to the Church
taken place? Where but in Canterbury itself, where he chanced
to be for a day or two, on his way to Dover to see his wife and
daughter embark for Holland ? True, in the very fact of his
being then there, and on that errand, Clarendon finds the
reason for his yielding. The Act, Clarendon himself thinks,
was one of the King's blunders. It shook to the foundations
the faith that many of his most devoted subjects had hitherto
reposed in him. It strengthened the hands of his opponents
for anything they might yet do against Episcopacy, by beget-
ting a belief among the King's lay adherents that the cause
of Episcopacy was de facto defunct, and that it was unneces-
sary in future to encumber their allegiance to monarchy with
any care for the remaining stump of Prelacy in the Church.
From this one infers that Clarendon himself, then Mr. Hyde,
disapproved of the act at the tima But he tells us that
" those of greatest trust about the King " agreed in persuading
him to it, urging many obvious reasons of immediate policy,
and among them one which was all-prevalent. If the King
» Clar. 939-942 (Life) ; Riwhworth, IV. 519.
352 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
should have to begin a civil war, it was argued, it would be
better for him to begin it on some other question than that of
the political rights of an order already so much crippled, and
so useless to him, as the Bishops. For example, there was the
great Militia business which the Parliament were now stir-
ring,— the question of the right of Parliament to prescribe to
the King in such matters as the command of the Forts of
the kingdom, and the levying, training, and officering of the
Forces. Would not that be a better question on which to
make a final stand ? There was already a considerable
opposition in the Lords to the Bill of the Commons on this
question, and there might be a much more powerful rally of
the King's friends on it than on any question of the mere
status of Bishops. Besides, by yielding in this business of
the Bishops, might not the King avert the Militia business,
or get it postponed ? Among the advisers who so argued, if
antecedents are to be trusted to, must certainly have been
Falkland. Unless he had changed his mind, the restriction
of the power of the Bishops must have been pleasing to him
on its own account. But there was a still more potent
adviser in the Queen. Caring little, on her own account,
for Bishops of any Protestant denomination, and, indeed,
instructed, Clarendon hints, by her spiritual advisers that
the duty of Eoman Catholics might lie in contributing to
the extinction of such anomalies, she not only adopted the
arguments of the King's other advisers, but added an argu-
ment of her own. If the King refused his assent to the
Bishops Exclusion Bill, would there not be fresh tumults,
and might not her own departure from the kingdom be
prevented, and the whole plan perilled of which that was
a part ? Probably neither this argument nor all the others
together would have carried the point but for a course of
reasoning which went on more peculiarly in the mind of
Charles himself. A lover of the Church and a Laudian
as he certainly was, Charles would probably have resisted
the Bishops Exclusion Bill to the end if he had considered
any assent he might give to it, as circumstances then
were, binding when circumstances should alter. What
1641-2.] BISHOPS EXCLUSION BILL PASSED. 353
says Clarendon ? " An opinion that the violence and force
" used in procuring it rendered it absolutely invalid and
" void made the confirmation of it less considered, as not
" being of strength to make that act good which was in itself
" null." In other words, the King gave his assent to the
Bishops Exclusion Bill chiefly because he did not consider
that the assent had any meaning or inferred any obligation.1
Meanwhile the two Houses, not too curiously scrutinizing
the King's motives, were exultant over his act. The King's
assent to the two Bills, of which the Bishops Exclusion Bill
was one, was signified on the 14th of February, and at the
same time there was a gracious message to both Houses from
his Majesty, to the effect that he would gratify their desires
for religious reformation in every way. For example, he would
execute the laws against the Roman Catholics, and issue, if
required, an immediate proclamation for the expulsion of
all Romish priests from the kingdom. " Concerning the
" government and liturgy of the Church," he would " refer
" that whole consideration to the wisdom of his Parliament,"
only desiring not to be pressed to any farther single act on
his part till the whole should be " so digested and settled by
" both Houses that his Majesty might see what was fit to be
" left as well as what was fit to be taken away." Nothing
could be more satisfactory ; and the two Houses thanked his
Majesty accordingly.2
So far as the King's assent to the Bishops Exclusion Bill
was a device for facilitating the Queen's departure out of
England, it was perfectly successful. On the 23rd of
February Charles saw her on board ship at Dover, together
with the Princess of Orange (i.e. the King's eldest daughter,
Mary, then only ten years of age, but married, or affianced,
since May 2, 1640, to William of Nassau, Prince of Orange,
by whom she was afterwards the mother of William III.
<>f Kngland). Returning from Dover to Greenwich, where
the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York joined him, and
still avoiding London, ( linl> passed northward by degrees, on
1 Par!. HM. II. 10*7 : .iii'i riar. \>\>. 171, 172. • Rtrl. Hist. II. 1088—0,
VOL. II 2 A
354 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
his way to York. He was at Theobalds, in Herts, on the
28th of February, at Eoyston on the 3rd of March, at New-
market on the 7th, at Huntingdon on the 14th, at Newark
on the 17th, at Doncaster on the 18th, and at York on
the 19th.1
Perceptibly, as Charles thus moved north and farther and
farther away from London, he changed his tone with the
Parliament. He had yielded on the Church question ; but
there was that other great question, already in discussion
between him and the Parliament when his assent to the
Bishops Exclusion Bill was given, — the question of THE
MILITIA OF THE KINGDOM. This great constitutional question,
which the Commons had long been agitating in the back-
ground, had at length been definitely brought to a bearing by
an Ordinance of the Commons, Feb. 9, 1641-2, for settling
the power of the Militia in the several counties in certain
persons to be presently named. Actually, within the next day
or two, a list of persons deemed fit for the supreme mili-
tary power in the different counties was drawn up by the
Commons. " Eesolved that the Earl of Holland shall be
nominated by this House to be Lord-Lieutenant of Berkshire " ;
" Eesolved that the Earl of Bolingbroke shall be nominated by
this House to be Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Bedford " ;
so the Commons began February 1 0 ; and on that and the
following day they traversed, in near alphabetical order, all
the counties of England and Wales, nominating some great
nobleman, or other very distinguished person, for the
lord-lieutenancy of each, always on the rule that the same
person might have two shires under his command, but no
more. On the 12th there was a supplementary Eesolution
for the City of London, vesting the government and ordering
of its Militia in nineteen persons, of whom Major-General
Skippon was one, six were aldermen, and the rest citizens.
On the 16th of February the Ordinance, duly engrossed, and
with all the names inserted, went up to the Lords ; where, " it
being put to the question, it was resolved That this Ordi-
nance shall pass, and be presented to his Majesty." Thus, no
1 Parl. Hist. II. 1100 ; Rushworth, IV. 484.
1641-2.] THE MILITIA QUESTION. 355
sooner had the King yielded on the question of the Bishops
than he had found himself assailed on the most essential
question of his own prerogative. Till the Queen was safely
gone he had staved off the matter ; but no sooner was she
gone, and he had passed London on his way north, than he
had given signs that on this question at all events he would
be immovable. From Theobalds on the 28th of February
he had sent such an answer to the representation of the
two Houses respecting the Militia Ordinance that the Houses
had voted it a " direct denial." Then, at each stage of his
journey north, messages on the same subject pursuing him,
expressed more and more resolutely by the two Houses,
he also had waxed firmer and firmer. To the Earl of Pem-
broke, who had been sent to persuade him, if possible, to
yield the power of the Militia to Parliament, his answer
at Newmarket on the 10th of March had been " No, by God ;
not for an hour" ]
1 Commons and Lords Journals of tho days cited ; Hush worth, IV. 520—533 ;
Parl. Hist II. 1097—1127.
CHAPTEE VII.
TWO MORE ANTI-EPISCOPAL PAMPHLETS OF MILTON.
OUR last sight of Milton was in July 1641, or just before
the King's visit to Scotland, and the symptoms of lull and
reaction which accompanied that event. He had then come
forth as a resolute Parliamentarian writer, a Eoot- and- Branch
pamphleteer. He had given three Anti-Episcopal pamphlets
to the world in quick succession : his large maiden-pamphlet
entitled Of Reformation and the Causes that hitherto have
Hindered it ; his slighter pamphlet entitled Of Prelatical
Episcopacy, in reply to Usher's deduction of Episcopacy from
Apostolical times ; and his merciless personal onslaught on
Bishop Hall, entitled Animadversions on the Remonstrant's
Defence against Smectymnuus. Since then he had been
living, as before, with his two nephew-pupils, in Aldersgate
Street. He may have taken an autumn holiday somewhere
during a part of the time of the King's absence in Scotland
and the Eecess of Parliament. But from the time of the
reassembling of the Parliament (Oct. 20, 1641) we are to
suppose him domiciled again in London for observation and
work. The winter had passed ; and it was now March
1641-2.
There are some rather curious traces of Milton during
those months as a London citizen and taxpayer. It may be
remembered that, in June 1641, the Parliament had decreed
a Poll-tax on all English subjects in order to clear off the
expenses of the English and Scottish armies in the north.
Great care seems to have been taken in London to secure
complete returns of all persons liable to this poll-tax ; and,
as every person, of either sex, over sixteen years of age, and
1641-2.] MILTON AND TIIK TOLL-TAX OF 1641. 357
not a pauper, was liable, the London poll-tax returns of 1641,
if they could be all recovered, would be about the most in-
teresting possible repertory of information respecting persons
and places in the London of that date. For example, though
we should have known independently that Milton then lived
in Aldersgate Street, and even that he lived in a garden-house
there at the end of an entry, we should not have been able
to fix the part of Aldersgate Street where this entry was
but for a particular record in the Exchequer, which is in
fact one of the returns for the aforesaid poll-tax, and is
entitled " A Book of the Names and Surnames, Degrees,
Ranks, and Qualities of all the Inhabitants of the Ward of
Aldersgate, London, July 1641." It is from this document
that we learn that the part of Aldersgate Street in which
Milton resided was that known as " the Second Precinct of
St. Botolph Parish"; that he had a servant named Jane Yates ;
and that among his neighbours in the same precinct, or
close by, were his old friend and schoolmaster Alexander
Gill the younger, Sir Thomas Cecil, Mr. Auditor Povey, Mrs.
Pallavicini, Dr. Theodore Diodati, the father of his deceased
friend Charles Diodati, and others already mentioned. The
document does not give the sums at which the different
persons were rated for the poll-tax ; but, as the rate for an
Esquire, or a Doctor of Law or Physic, was 10/., and the rate
for a Common-Councilman or person of similar quality 5/.,
and as "every man that may dispend 50/. a year of his
own " was rated at 2/., we cannot suppose Milton let off under
this last sum. Jane Yates, his servant, had to pay at least
6rf. But, whatever the sum was, Milton was in no hurry to
pay it. In a subsequent Exchequer paper, entitled " The
Names of those who have not paid us of the Gentry in the
Second Precinct," Milton is named as one of the defaulters.
(Jill and Mrs. Pallavicini were in his company in this respect,
as also was Dr. Diodati, whose unpaid rate must have been
101. As the date of this document is not given, we may
suppose, if we like, that Milton's neglect to pay arose from
lii- being out of town when the collection was made; but
it is quite as likely that it was intentional. He can hardly,
358 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
indeed, have objected to giving 21. or so towards indemnifying
the Scots, who at that time, as we shall see, were high in his
esteem. On the contrary, he may have desired not to part
with the Scots too soon, and may therefore have deferred to
the last moment a contribution which was to go partly to
that result. That, in any case, Milton's delay in paying his
poll-tax did not proceed either from insufficient means, or
from niggardliness in a public cause, is interestingly proved
by a third local record. This is a list of persons in the
same Second Precinct of St. Botolph's Parish in the Ward of
Aldersgate, who, in January 1641-2, contributed towards
the " Collection for Ireland," — i.e. towards a fund raised for
the relief of the Irish Protestants. As we shall presently
see, Milton was vehemently interested in the condition of
the poor English and Scots in Ireland, victims of the Irish
Eebellion. But in this document we have a pecuniary
measure of his interest. While wealthy neighbours of his
in Aldersgate Street, such as Mr. Auditor Povey, with his
household of four servants, and Mr. Matthews, with a like
establishment, contributed II. each, and while the highest
sum else contributed in the whole precinct was 2/., Milton's
contribution was 4:1. It is as if now some man of moderate
means in London, from interest in some public object, were
to subscribe fifteen or twenty guineas, while the subscription
of his wealthiest neighbour was seven or ten guineas.1
Milton, indeed, was now in a position to have his actions
in such matters observed. Although his three Anti-Epi-
scopal pamphlets had been anonymous, there was no secret
as to their authorship. There must have been a good deal of
visiting at the house in Aldersgate Street on account of them,
1 My authority for the statements in might enable any one afterwards to
this paragraph is the late Mr. Joseph find them. — There are various instances
Hunter in his tract entitled Milton : of generosity in the matter of relief to
a Skeaf^of Gleanings (1850, pp. 24—27). Ireland. Thus, on the 25th of April
The original Exchequer Records cited 1642, Sir Simonds D'Ewes offered se-
there as having been seen by Mr Hun- curity for a contribution of 50£. a year
ter have been inquired after by me, but for this purpose while the Rebellion
without success. This does not invali- should last, and was thanked by the
date Mr. Hunter's testimony, for he Commons for the same. On the same
was a man to be thoroughly trusted in day Mr George Peard promised 201. a
such matters ; but it was a decided year, and was also thanked. (Commons
neglect in him not to give such exact Journals of that day.)
references to the documents cited as
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOKMEK I-AMI-HLKTS TAI.KKD OF. 359
and Milton's name must have been heard in connexion with
them in places where he was not known personally. Young
and the other four Smectymnuan ministers, for example, can
hardly have been silent about this brother-pamphleteer of
theirs, who had been in the Smectymnuan counsels from the
first, and whose last pamphlet was avowedly written in aid
of the Smectymnuans. But, apart from neighbourship or
acquaintanceship, there was enough in the pamphlets them-
selves to cause an inquisitiveness respecting their author
among both friends and foes of his principles. Proof of this,
as respects foes of his principles, might be produced in the
form of angry allusions to the pamphlets occurring in con-
temporary writings. One instance of the kind may be
given : — There was not a better soul breathing, and cer-
tainly not a more quiet and kindly English clergyman, than
Thomas Fuller, Rector of Broad Windsor, Dorsetshire, but
now much in London, and known as a preacher there. He
was exactly of Milton's own age; he had been Milton's
coeval at Cambridge ; and, like Milton, he was destined to be
remembered in the world of English letters. His greater his-
torical works, which were to preserve the memory of his in-
dustry, his moderation and candour, his lucid intelligence, and
his quaint and delicious wit, were yet to come ; but he had
published one or two things, including his History of the Holy
War. As a work to follow that, he had been engaged since
1640, partly in his Dorsetshire Rectory, and partly in London,
on the collection of short essays and popular biographic
sketches now known as his Holy and Profane State. The
work was not published till 1642, when it appeared as a folio
volume, with cuts, from the Cambridge press ; but it had been
in manuscript nearly a year before it was published ; and
therefore the allusion made in one of the sketches in it to
Milton's maiden-pamphlet, Of Reformation and tlie Caitses tlvat
hitherto have hindered it, may be considered as the earliest
recognition of that pamphlet by any critic of note to us now.
Whatever Fuller may have thought of the pamphlet as a
whole, there were passages in it that shocked him. More
particularly he was shocked by those passages in which
360 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Milton, in his zeal against bishops, had not hesitated to speak
irreverently even of such bishops as Cranmer, Latimer, and
Ridley, fathers and martyrs of English Protestantism though
they were. So much had this grated on the good Fuller
that, in his little sketch called " The Life of Bishop
Kidley," he cannot forbear bringing the pamphlet and its
anonymous author (though Fuller may have known who
he was) sharply to book. " One might have expected/' he
says, speaking of the martyr-bishops of Mary's days, " that
" these worthy men should have been re-estated in their
" former honour ; whereas the contrary hath come to pass.
" For some who have an excellent faculty in uncharitable
" synecdoches, to condemn a life for an action, and taking
" advantage of some faults in them, do much condemn them.
" And one lately hath traduced them with such language as
" neither beseemed his parts, whosoever he was that spake it,
" nor their piety of whom it was spoken. If pious Latimer,
" whose bluntness was incapable of flattery, had his simplicity
" abused with false informations, he is styled ' another Dr.
" ' Shaw, to divulge in his sermon forged accusations.' Cranmer
" and Ridley, for some failings, are styled ' the common stales
" ' to countenance, with their prostituted gravities, every politic
" ' fetch which was then on foot, as often as the potent statists
" ' pleased to employ them.' " Here, after a further quotation
or two from the impious pamphleteer, who is referred to in a
note as " Author of the book lately printed of Causes Hinder-
ing Reformation in England," Fuller holds up his hands in
pious sorrow.1
In the pamphlet itself Milton had anticipated such pious
sorrow, and had made very light of it, or, rather, had most
seriously protested that he could take no account of it.
He had invoked Almighty God to witness that, wherever in
that writing he had spoken " plainly and roundly " of the
faults and blemishes of martyrs and other great men, it had
been " of mere necessity." He had resolved, he said, " to
" vindicate the spotless Truth from an ignominious bondage,
" whose native worth is now become of such a low esteem that
1 Fuller's Holy and Profane State : edit. 1841 ; pp. 274, 275.
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOURTH PAMPHLET. 361
" she is like to find small credit with us for what she can say
" unless she can bring a ticket from Cranmer, Latimer, and
" Ridley." Better, he declared, that those names were utterly
abolished, like the brazen serpent, than that they should
come to be idolized against the Truth.1 But Fuller had either
not read this explanation, or had not thought it adequate ;
and what a man so mild as Fuller felt must have been felt
in stronger degree by others.2 Nor had Milton's two later
pamphlets been of a kind to improve his reputation for
meekness and respect for dignities. To all to whom a living
Bishop was an object of veneration, his treatment of Hall
in his Animadversions must have seemed atrocious, if not
blasphemous.
Blasphemy, as some thought it, or noble and free opinion,
as others may have thought it, there was more of the like
matter to come from the " pretty garden house " in Aldersgate
Street. As near as I can calculate, it was between the date
of the King's departure from Whitehall after the failure of
his coup tfttat (Jan. 10, 1641-2) and his arrival at York
(March 19, 1641-2) that Milton's fourth Anti-Episcopal pam-
phlet was published. It is a larger pamphlet than any of its
three predecessors, and more elaborately written than any of
them except that Of Reformation ; and Milton must have
been engaged on it for at least a month or so before its
publication. In its original form it is a small quarto of 65
pages of close type, with this title : " The Reason of Church-
government urgd against Prelaty, by Mr. John Milton : In two
Books : London, Printed by E. G. for John Rothwell, and are
to be sold at the Sunne in Paul's Churchyard, 1641." 8 Here,
1 Of Reformation, &c. : Milton's ' ' with their prostituted gravity every
Work*, III. 9, 10. ' ' politic fetch ' ! It was truly said by
2 The Irish Bishop Brnmhull, in ' Seneca that the most contemptible
his Strptnt Salve, published at Dub- ' persons ever have the loosest
lin in 1643, repeats Fuller's allusion to ' tongues " ! For this reference to
Milton's maiden-pamphlet more tartly, Brain hull's first mention of Milton, as
thus : " Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, for other kindnesses, I am indebted to
' Hooper, were all Bishops ; Coverdale Mr. J. E. B. Mayor, M.A., Fellow of
' exercised episcopal jurisdiction. With St. John's, Cambridge.
4 what indignation do all good I'r<> » Among the copies of this pamphlet
1 testants see those blessed men styled in tho British Museum there is one
' now in print by a young novice (King's Pamphlets, vol. K. 137) with A'./
' 'halting and time-serving prelates,' Don<> J M/W/X written on the title-page
' and ' common stales to countenance in, as 1 think, Milton's own hand,— one
362 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
it will be observed, Milton for the first time throws off the
anonymous. The publisher, it will also be observed, is not
the " Thomas Underhill " who had published the three pre-
ceding pamphlets, but "John Eothwell." He was the same
who had published the pamphlets of the Smectymnuans
against Hall. He may have been a relative of the " Henry
Kothwell " who was servant or apprentice to Milton's father
in 1631.1
The pamphlets on the Church question that had been
produced since Milton's last might be counted by scores, if
not by hundreds. The great majority of them, like Milton's
own, were unregistered ; for the press had burst all bounds
of licensing, and could not be brought within those bounds
again by any Parliamentary orders or threats. Among those
that were registered may be mentioned A Discourse opening
the nature of Episcopacy, by Lord Brooke, one of the chief, if
not the chief, of the extreme Puritans among the Peers. It
was published in Nov. 164 1,2 and must have been read by
Milton; who afterwards, when the noble author was dead,
referred to him in terms of high and touching eulogy, ex-
pressly on account of it.3 But not Lord Brooke, with all his
reputation for philosophic ability, and not any other of the
hundred pamphleteers that were writing on the Church
question, can have been felt as such a voice of power, where-
ever there were competent readers, as this all-daring " Mr.
John Milton." Whoever reads the pamphlet even now, or
of the presentation copies he sent to l See ant$, p. 99.
friends. The pamphlet, like its pre- 2 Here is the full title of Lord
decessors, not being registered in the Brooke's pamphlet : " A Discourse
Stationers' Books, we have not that opening the nature of that Episcopacy
means of determining the exact time of which is exercised in England ; wherein,
its publication. But the year 1641 with all humility, are represented some
on the title-page fixes March 24, 1641-2, considerations tending to the much desired
as the limit on one side ; and there is Peace, and long expected Reformation, of
internal evidence that the date of pub- this our Mother Church : By the Right
lication must have been after the pre- Honourable Robert Loi-d Brooke :
ceding Christmas. The Irish Insurrec- Printed by R. C. for Samuel Cartright,
tion is spoken of as still raging, — which and are to be sold at the signe of the Hand
dates the pamphlet after Oct. 1641 ; and Bible in Duck Lane, 1641." Tho
and the imprisonment of the twelve date of the publication I have ascer-
bishops in the Tower is mentioned, — tained from the Registers of the Sta-
which dates it after Christmas 1641. tioners' Company, where it is entered
January or February 1641-2 is there- Nov. 9, 1641.
fore the probable month. 3 In the Areopagitica.
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOURTH I'AMrill.KT: OXFORD TRACTS. 363
indeed any other of those early pamphlets of Milton, has
his mind thrown into the strangest tumult.
The pamphlet differs in its aim and scope from any of its
predecessors. In his first and second Milton had adopted
mainly the historical method ; in the third he had been cri-
tical and personal ; but here he proposes to argue against
Prelacy on grounds of philosophic reason, or from a study
of the principles of Christianity and human nature. By the
title " Reason of Church Government " Milton means what
in modern language would be called " Theory of Church
Government " ; and his pamphlet is, in fact, a treatise on the
Relations between Church and State. In discussing this
subject he adopts a free, discursive method, bringing in high
speculative views of his own as to the ends of government, and
the possibilities of human society, if adequately instructed,
inspired, and controlled. To a certain extent, however, he
has in view, for polemic reference throughout, a collection of
tracts on the other side that had then recently been published
with this title : " Certaine Brief e Treatises, ivrittcn by Diverse
Learned Men, concerning the ancient and moderne Government
of the Church : Oxford, printed by Leonard Lichfield, Printer
to the University: Anno Dom. 1641."
This curious collection of tracts seems to have been in-
tended by its Oxford editor or editors as an authoritative
exposition, both historical and rational, of the grounds of
Episcopacy, but not so much in its Laudian form as in that
more moderate form, represented by some of the greater
Reformed divines, and now by Archbishop Usher, for which
alone there seemed to be a chance left in England. The
collection, accordingly, is made up of scraps or fragments
from writers of high reputation, dead and living, while the
whole is intended as a counteractive to Root-and-Branch
opinions, and an appeal in behalf of an eclectic or liberal
Episcopacy. An analysis of the contents of the volume,
which is now rare, may be of some interest : — (1) First of all,
occupying a few pages only, comes A Discovery of the Causes
of the continuance of these Contentions concerning Church
/;// 7iV /////>/ //W,-./. It may have l^en an ad-
364 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
vantage to lead off with Hooker's name ; but this fragment of
his consists only of a few general remarks, like this, " Want
" of sound proceeding in Church controversies hath made many
" more stiff in error now than before."- —(2) Of more impor-
tance, and occupying nearly forty pages of the volume, is A
Summarie View of the Government loth of the Old and New
Testaments, whereby the Episcopall Government of Christ's
Church is vindicated : out of the rude draughts of Lancelot An-
drewes, late Bishop of Winchester. Bishop Andrewes, though
he had been dead sixteen years, was well remembered ; and
this timely recovery of a few manuscript jottings of his on the
subject of Episcopacy may have been considered a piece of
good fortune. They are really only jottings, as if for some
intended treatise, and their argument is decidedly more in
the High Church strain than that of most of the accom-
panying tracts. Andrewes seeks the original or prototype of
Episcopal government and sacerdotalism in the forms of the
old Jewish Priesthood. The Priesthood among the Jews, he
says, had been settled by God in the one tribe of Levi. But,
further, Levi having three sons, — Kohath,Gershon,and Merari,
—the particular line of Kohath was preferred among all the
Levites. Again, Kohath having four sons, — Amram, Izhar,
Hebron, and Uzziel, — a farther precedency was vested in the
family of Amram. Finally, of Amram's two sons, Aaron and
Moses, Aaron was expressly appointed High Priest. Thus there
came to be four orders or gradations of Levites, all priests :
Aaron in chief ; the other descendants of Kohath ; the descend-
ants of Gershon ; and those of Merari. These inequalities
and superiorities continued under Joshua, the Judges, and
the Kings ; the Jewish Priesthood being throughout a hier-
archy. " Why may not the like be for the government of the
Church ? " Andrewes proceeds to ask. It ought to be, he says ;
and he gives a table of what he thinks the correspondencies
between the Jewish sacerdotal system and the Christian.
Aaron has his only antitype, thinks Andrewes, in Christ him-
self; but Eleazar, Aaron's son, answers to the Archbishop in the
Christian Church ; the " Princes of Priests " among the Jews
correspond to Bishops ; the ordinary Priests to Presbyters ;
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOURTH PAMPHLET : OXFORD TRACTS. 365
the " Princes of Levites " to Archdeacons ; the ordinary
Levites to Deacons ; while the Nethinims, or servants of the
Levites (see Ezra viii. 20), might pair off with modern " Clerks
and Sextons." Pursuing his subject into the New Testament,
Andrewes finds that Bishops, or Overseers of the other Pres-
byters, were first ordained by the Apostles themselves, the
occasion of their appointment having been perhaps the schisms
that arose in the primitive Church. Moreover, in the dis-
tribution of the Apostles and Evangelists over particular lands
and regions as the scenes of their labours, — Peter to Pontus,
&c., John to Asia and Parthia, Andrew to Scythia and the
Euxine, Matthew to Ethiopia, &c., — he finds the original of
diocesan and provincial jurisdictions. (3) Those queer
notes of Andrewes are followed by TJie Originall of BisJwps
and Metropolitans, briefly laid down by Martin Bucer, John
Eainoldes, and James, Archbishop of Armagh. This is, in
fact, a repetition, with additions, of that previous or all but
contemporary publication, by Usher, or under his name,
entitled " The Judgment of Doctor Rainoldes, &c." of which
an account has been already given (see ante pp. 248 — 253),
and to which Milton had replied specially in his second
pamphlet. Reynolds's Judgment or opinion in behalf of a
Limited or merely Presidential Episcopacy, as traceable to the
Apostolic times, is again quoted; but prefixed to it is an opinion
from Bucer to the same general effect ; after which Usher's
confirmations of the same view are repeated, but with some
fresh remarks, in the course of which Usher relapses into the
Andrewes kind of matter, and dwells more than in his former
tract on the argument from the analogy of the Levites and
Aaronitic Priesthood.— —(4) There is, next, a distinct little
essay by Usher, entitled A Geographical! and Historical!
Disquisition touching the Lydian or Proconsular Asia and tlie
Seven Metropoliticall Churches contained therein : by the said
Archbishop of Armagh. Here we have an extension, by the
aid of geographical learning, of Usher's former argument for
the antiquity of Primacies or Archbishoprics. (5) Next
follows A Declaration of the Patriarchal! Government of the
Ancient Church: !•?/ /•,',/"•„,;/ BretWOOd, This liivivw...,.!, a
366 LIFE OF MILTON AND HTSTOEY OF HIS TIME.
native of Chester, educated at Oxford, had been the first
Astronomy Professor in Gresham College, London. He had
been much respected in his lifetime for his learning ; and,
since his death in 1613, his reputation had been enhanced
by the publication from his manuscripts of several works
which he had been too modest to give to the world himself,
including two treatises on the Sabbath.1 The essay of his
now published, and which apparently saw the light for the
first time in this Oxford volume, was sure to attract attention.
It is, indeed, a clever and clear little tract, — the best, I think,
in the volume. The main notion is that the organization of
the early Christian Church was framed on the model of the
civil organization of the Eoman Empire, — the ordinary Bishop
corresponding to the Governor of a City, the Metropolitan to
the chief of a Province, and the Primate in a higher sense
still to the chief of one of those clusters of Provinces which
the Romans called Dioceses, and which were equal in size
to large modern kingdoms. In the development of this
notion the following questions are put and answered : — First,
" Whether every Church or Bishop at the time of the Nicene
" Council were subject to one of the three Patriarchs of Rome,
" of Alexandria, and of Antiochia, mentioned in the sixth
" canon of that Council ? " To this Brerewood answers No,
and gives his reasons. Secondly, " To what Patriarchate was
" the Church and Bishop of Carthage subject, — to Alexandria
" or to Rome ? " To neither, answers Brerewood ; the Bishop
of Carthage being himself a Primate, with Patriarchal juris-
diction. Thirdly, " To what Patriarchate belonged Britain, —
to Rome, or to what other ? " Certainly to none, argues
Brerewood, seeing that Britain was itself one of the six
Dioceses of the Western Empire, and had an independent
Primate of its own in the Archbishop of York. In short,
Brerewood holds that Primates were equivalent on the whole
to Patriarchs, though there may have been some vague superi-
ority in the latter designation. (6) After Brere wood's
interesting dissertation comes a tract of only a page or two,
1 About Brerewood, see Wood's Ath. Cheshire ; and Cox's Literature of the
by Bliss, II. 139, 140 ; Fuller's Worthies, Sabbath Question (1865), I. 159, 160.
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOURTH PAMI-IILF.T: OXFORD TRACTS. 367
entitled A Brief e Declaration of the severall formes of Govern-
ment received in the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas : by John
Durel. The substance of this tract may be compressed thus : —
In Sweden, Limited Episcopacy, and Bishops in Parliament,
along with representatives of the inferior clergy ; in Denmark,
and the German Lutheran states and cities, Superintendents
for life, presiding in Consistories ; in Holland, by recent
arrangement, a temporary superintending power given to
Deputies of Synod ; in Geneva and the French Calvinistic
Churches, no fixed Moderators certainly, but the eldest
ministers reverenced and deferred to in some undefined
manner ; in Transsylvania, Polonia, and Bohemia, a kind of
Bishops called Seniors. In short, nowhere perhaps in the
Protestant world, unless it were in Scotland since 1638,
was there absolute parity of Presbyters.1 (7) The last
1 The author of the scrap is now
identified in some library catalogues
with a John Durel, a native of St.
Ueliere in Jersey, who, after having
been a student in Oxford from 1640
to 1642, went abroad, completed his
studies in French Protestant Colleges,
and lived in France for a good many
years as a preacher of some note, but
returned to England at the Restora-
tion, to be of greater note as minister
of the French Church in the Savoy,
London, with promotion in 1663 to be
Prebendary of Salisbury and Canon of
Windsor, and in 1677 to bo Dean of
Windsor. In this later portion of his
life he was known as a zealous defender
of the Restoration government of
Charles II. — the most celebrated of his
writings in that capacity having been a
small quarto volume in 1662, with the
title "A I'irir i,f tl,. d'o.-rrnment and
tt'nrxtii'ji <\f (•'•*! i" (fa Reformed
Ckurche* beyond the Seat: tchtrein it
ikewed their Conformity and Agreement
with tl,. < 7- »,-,/- ",f England atitu fbtab-
liihed by the Aft of U*jfanm'tfi." Th.j
subject of this volume, and the very
wording of its title, it will bo observed,
suggest that it may have been an ex-
pansion of the author's hriuf contribu-
tion to the Oxford collection of Pro-
Episcopal tracts published twenty-one
years before. As Durel, however, was
then but an undergraduate of Morton
College, — not more than sixteen years
of ago, if Anthony \V<M»<r> an-mint uf
him is correct (.I//., n,,,,,. IV. s;
is difficult to see how any contribution
of his could have been admitted into a
collection of excerpts purporting to be
from the writings of eminent and
authoritative authors, — Hooker, Bishop
Andrewes, Usher, &c. The thing is
not impossible ; but I confess I have
doubts. May there not have been an
older John Durel, better known about
the year 1641 than this stripling of
Morton College? - In consequence,
perhaps, of the blurred typography of
the copy of the rare Oxford volume of
1641 to which I first had access, I had
misread the words " by John Durel " in
the title of this portion of its contents,
taking them to DO "by John Duree" ;
and I assumed, therefore, in the first
edition of this volume, that the author
was JOHN DDRIB (called sometimes
DUIL&US or DURBB), a man of such
European celebrity at the time that
his appearance in company even with
Usher would not have been astonishing
on any occasion, while his appearaiMM
as a special authority on the subject of
the different forms of government
among the foreign Protestant Churches
would have seemed the most natural
in the world. The mistake was
obligingly pointed out to mo a good
while ago by the Rev. Professor Cand-
lish of Glasgow ; and I am glad now to
have the opi>ortunity of rectifying it.
But, while this John Durio must there-
fore l>o unlinkod from his former con-
:i with our text at the present
l-.int, ho is so imjtortant a personage
368
LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
tract in the collection also refers to the foreign Protestant
Churches. It is entitled The Lawfulnesse of the Ordina-
tion of the Ministers of these Churches maintained against
the Romanists : by Francis Mason. It is an extract, apparently,
in Milton's biography that it may be as
well to introduce him fully in this foot-
note : — Born in Scotland in or about
1600, the son of Mr. Eobert Dune,
minister of Anstruther in Fifeshire, he
was but in his first boyhood when the
whole future of his life was changed by
his father's prominent concern in an
act of ultra-Presbyterian zeal on the
part of a number of the Scottish clergy.
This was the attempt to hold a General
Assembly of the Kirk at Aberdeen in
July 1605, in defiance, or in what was
represented as defiance, of a prohibi-
tion of such an Assembly proclaimed
at the last moment by the Scottish
Privy Council in consequence of in-
structions received from King James
in London. Mr. Robert Durie of An-
struther was one of six principals in
this affair against whom King James's
wrath was so relentless that it took the
form of a capital prosecution for high
treason ; and the result was that in
1606 all the six left Scotland under
sentence of banishment for life from
His Majesty's dominions. Mr. Durie
settled eventually in Holland, where
he is found serving as minister of a
Scottish congregation in Leyden from
1609 to 1617. His son, having accom-
panied him into exile, must have been
brought up mainly in Holland, but is
reported by Anthony Wood (Fasti
Oxon. I. 420-22) to have come to
Oxford in July 1624 as a " sojourner in
the University," chiefly "for the sake
of the public library." He must have
gone abroad again almost immediately ;
for it was shortly after this, and while
he was still a young man, that he con-
ceived, and began to propagate abroad,
the idea, or scheme, or crotchet, which
dominated all the rest of his life,
and made him ere long a European
celebrity. This was the idea of a
Union of all the Protestant Churches
of Europe, or, at all events, of the
Lutheran and Calvinistic Churches.
The idea, I find from one of his own
subsequent writings (An Epistolary
Discourse, addressed to Thomas Good-
win and Philip Nye, published in 1642),
had seized him first, or first taken full
possession of him, on a visit to Prussia
in 1628. Once conceived, it became
permanent in his mind. Thenceforward
all his travels, all his interviews with
eminent men in different countries, and
all his correspondence, were dedicated
to what he called his "negotiation" —
i.e. his effort to enlist the chiefs
of every Protestant community in
Europe in the view that all denomina-
tions of Protestants, despite their
differences, ought to be united in
one general brotherhood. By the
year 1637 he had had access to the
great Grotius, and had so inoculated
him with the idea that, as we have
already had occasion to mention (Vol.
I. pp. 752-4), Grotius was then in
earnest communication on the subject
with Laud, through Lord Scudamore,
the English ambassador at Paris.
Though Durie was not named in that
account of the correspondence between
Grotius and Laud, my authority for
the account (Gibson's Parochial History
of Door, &c., 1727) contains ample
proof that Durie was in the back-
ground all the while, inspiring Grotius,
and that what Grotius urged upon
Laud, and Laud thought visionary non-
sense, was but a Grotian modification
of Durie's idea. Among the English
ecclesiastics besides Laud whom Durie
sought strenuously to interest in his
scheme was Bishop Hall ; but, indeed,
there was no influential man, or body
of men, in any European country that
escaped his communications. Between
1637 and 1641 he seems still to have
been travelling, from Holland, through
France and Germany, to Denmark and
Sweden, interviewing people and writ-
ing letters. In 1641 he either actually
visited England again, or meditated
such a visit, fancying he saw a new
opening for his idea in the general
tumult of ecclesiastical discussion then
in progress in England. It is certain
that he was in correspondence, in be-
half of his idea, with the Scottish
Covenanters in their General Assembly
of that year (Baillie's Letters, I. 364-5).
He is found, however, residing at the
Hague, continuously or occasionally,
from June 1642 to the beginning of
1644 ; after which last date we shall
hear of him again more distinctly as
back in England. Meanwhile, in proof
of his European celebrity, I may refer
to the article on him in Bayle's Dic-
tionary.
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOURTH PAMPHLET : OXFORD TRACTS. 369
from a larger work of the same author entitled "A Vindication
of the Church of England," &c., published in 1613, when the
author, an Oxford man, was still alive and Archdeacon of Nor-
folk.1 It is a hair-splitting kind of thing, in the form of a
dialogue between " Philodox and Orthodox," but makes for the
general cause of Episcopacy by this conclusion : " Seeing a
" Bishop and a Presbyter do not differ in order, but only in
" preheminence and jurisdiction, and seeing Calvin and Beza
" had the order of Priesthood . . and were lawfully chosen,
" the one after the other, to a place of eminency . . you
" cannot deny to them the substance of the Episcopal office."
Milton, seizing this composite collection of tracts as per-
haps the weightiest and wariest manifesto that had been put
forth in behalf of a retention of Episcopacy in some form in
the Church of England, keeps it in view throughout his pam-
phlet. He does not, indeed, reply formally to all the tracts.
But he names several of them, — Brerewood's in a manner
implying, I think, some respect for his memory ; he allows
phrases and ideas in others to determine the course of his
arguments and speculations ; and he selects those of Bishop
Andre wes and Archbishop Usher for lengthened attack. Of
the kind of feeling Milton entertained for Usher we have
already had a sample. If not very respectful, it was not
quite disrespectful ; and, in comparison with his contempt
and dislike for Hall, one might even call it kindliness. It
is interesting now to note his attitude towards the memory
of a thinl I 'relate, — the once famous Bishop Andrewes. He
certainly says nothing of Andrewes approaching in disrespect
to what he says of Hall ; but the rather slighting terms in
which he does now speak of Andrewes are in curious con-
trast with the terms of reverent eulogy in which he had spoken
of the same Prelate in his juvmile Latin Elegy, In dbitum
Prcesulis Wintoniensis, written at Cambridge in 1626.2
Fastening on the phrase " out of the rude draughts of
Lancelot Andrewes, late Bishop of Winchester" used in the
subtitle of that tract in the composite series for which the
II .Uodl621: aeeWood'H Atl.. l.\ Kli- 11.305-308.
« Seo vol. I. p. l(fe.
vol.. II U it
370 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
memory of Andrewes was made responsible, Milton, when
he replies to that tract in particular, begins his observations
on it by saying, " Surely they be rude draughts indeed, inso-
" much that it is marvel to think what his friends meant,
" to let come abroad such shallow reasonings with the name
" of a man so much bruited for learning " ; nor does the
tone anywhere in the sequel of the criticism rise higher
than these words suggest at the outset.
The following is an analysis of the entire pamphlet, as
arranged in Books and Chapters by Milton himself: —
BOOK I. :
" THE PREFACE" : Explaining the intention of the pamphlet.
" Chap. I. : That Church Government is prescribed in the Gospel,
and that to say otherwise is unsound" i.e. arguing that
instruction as to the proper constitution of the Church
may a priori be expected in Scripture.
" Chap. II. : That Church Government is set down in Holy
Scripture, and that to say otherwise is untrue"; arguing that,
in fact, there is instruction on the subject in Scripture.
" Chap. III. : That it is dangerous and unworthy the Gospel to
hold that Church Government is to be patterned by the Law,
as B. Andrewes and the Primate of Armagh maintain"
" Chap. IV. : That it is impossible to make the Priesthood of
Aaron a pattern whereon to ground Episcopacy"
" Chap. V. : To the Arguments of B. Andrewes and the Primate " :
i.e. a more particular notice of their statements on the
subject in the Oxford Tracts.
" Chap. VI. : That Prelaty ivas not set up for prevention of
Schism, as is pretended, or, if it were, that it performs
not what it ivas set up for, but quite the contrary."
" Chap. VII. : That those many Sects and Schisms by some sup-
posed to be among us, and that Rebellion in Ireland, ought
not to be a hindrance, but a hasting of Reformation."
BOOK II. :
Preface : Autobiographical, at some length.
" Chap. I. : That Prelaty opposeth the reason and end of the
Gospel three ways, — and, first, in her outward form" :
i.e. arguing that in the external pomp of lordliness
belonging to the Episcopal system, and really inseparable
from it, a mind of true spirituality will find a contrariety
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOURTH PAMPHLET. 371
to the very spirit of the Gospel ; for, inasmuch as Christ
himself " took upon him the form of a servant," ought not
the ministerial character to be perennial in his followers ?
Milton brings forward this argument hesitatingly, as one
of deep force with himself, but which he knows it may
be bad policy to put in the front ; so meaningless it will
be for ordinary minds.
" Chap. II. : That the ceremonious doctrine of Prelaty oppotetk
the reason and end of the Gospel " ; i.e. arguing that
the rites, symbolisms, and vestments used in the Epi-
scopal Church conceal and distort the simple truth of
Christianity as it is in the Bible.
" Chap. III. : That Prelatical Jurisdiction opposeth the reason
and end of the Gospel and the State." This is a long
chapter, arguing that the Church is really a spiritual and
moral agency, and ought to depend solely on spiritual
and moral means of discipline, leaving temporal power
and civil punishment in the hands of the Civil Magistrate.
" THE CONCLUSION : The mischief that Prelaty does in the State."
While this analysis may indicate the general course of
Milton's argument in the pamphlet, and the order of his
topics, it fails to give any idea of the power of mind shown
in the pamphlet and of its casual passages of eloquence and
beauty. A quotation or two may repair this defect : —
Discipline. — There is not that thing in the world of more grave
and urgent importance throughout the whole life of man than
Discipline. What need I instance ? He that hath read with
judgment of nations and commonwealths, of cities and camps,
of peace and war, sea and land, will readily agree that the
flourishing and decaying of all civil societies, all the moments and
turnings of human occasions, are moved to and fro as upon the
axle of Discipline. So that whatsoever power or sway in mortal
things weaker men have attributed to Fortune, I durst with more
confidence (the honour of Divine Providence ever saved) ascribe
either to the vigour or the slackness of Discipline. Nor is there any
sociable perfection in this life, civil or sacred, that can be above
Discipline ; )>ut she is that which with her musical cords preserves
and holds all the parts thereof together. Hence in those perfect
armies of Cy\\- in Xenophon, and Scipio in the Roman stories, the
372 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
excellency of military skill was esteemed, not by the not needing,
but by the readiest submission to, the edicts of their com-
mander. And, certainly, Discipline is not only the removal of
disorder, but, if any visible shape can be given to divine things,
the very visible shape and image of Virtue, whereby she is not
only seen in the regular gestures and motions of her heavenly
paces as she walks, but also makes the harmony of her voice
audible to mortal ears. Yea, the Angels themselves, in whom no
disorder is feared, as the Apostle. that saw them in his rapture
describes, are distinguished and quaternioned into their celestial
Princedoms and Satrapies, according as God himself hath writ His
imperial decrees through the great provinces of Heaven. The
state also of the Blessed in Paradise, though never so perfect, is
not therefore left without Discipline ; whose golden surveying
reed marks out and measures every quarter and circuit of New
Jerusalem. Yet, [if] it is not to be conceived that these Eternal
Effluences of sanctity and love in the glorified Saints should by
this means be confined and cloyed with repetition of that which
is prescribed, but that our happiness may orb itself into a
thousand vagancies of glory and delight, and with a kind of
eccentrical equation be as it were an invariable planet of joy and
felicity, how much less can we believe that God would leave his
frail and feeble, though not less beloved, Church here below to
the perpetual stumble of conjecture and disturbance in this our
dark voyage without the card and compass of Discipline ! Which
is so hard to be of man's making that we may see, even in the
guidance of a civil state to worldly happiness, it is not for every
learned or every wise man, though many of them consult in
common, to invent or frame a Discipline ; but, if it be at all the
work of man, it must be of such a one as is a true knower of
himself, and himself in whom contemplation and practice, wit,
prudence, fortitude, and eloquence must be rarely met, both to
comprehend the hidden causes of things and span in his thoughts
all the various effects that passion or complexion can work in
man's nature ; and hereto must his hand be at defiance with gain,
and his heart in all virtues heroic. So far is it from the ken of
these wretched projectors of ours that bescrawl their pamphlets
every day with new forms of government for our Church.1
Prelacy and Schism. — The Prelates, as they would have it
1 Compare this passage of Milton's in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida,
on the all-importance of Discipline or Act I., Scene 3, where Ulysses discourses
Subordination with a similar passage on the importance of "Degree."
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOURTH PAMPHLET. 373
thought, are the only mauls of Schism. Forsooth, if they be put
down, a deluge of innumerable sects will follow, — we shall be all
Brownists, Familists, Anabaptists ! For the word Puritan seems
to be quashed, and all that heretofore were counted such are
now Brownists. And thus do they raise an evil report upon the
expected reforming grace that God hath bid us to hope for, like
those faithless spies whose carcases shall perish in the wilderness
of their own confused ignorance, and never taste the good of
reformation. Do they keep away Schism ? If to bring a numb
and chill stupidity of soul, an inactive blindness of mind, upon
the people by their leaden doctrine, or no doctrine at all, — if to
persecute all knowing and zealous Christians by the violence of
their courts, — be to keep away schism, they keep away schism
indeed : and by this kind of discipline ail Italy and Spain is as
purely and politicly kept from schism as England hath been by
them. With as good a plea might the Dead Palsy boast to a man,
" Tis / that free you from stitches and pains, and the troublesome
feeling of cold and heat, of wounds and strokes ; if / were gone,
all these would molest you." The Winter might as well vaunt
itself against the Spring, " I destroy all noisome and rank weeds ;
I keep down all pestilent vapours." Yes, and all wholesome herbs,
and all fresh dews, by your violent and hidebound frost ; but, when
the gentle west winds shall open the fruitful bosom of the Earth
thus overgirded by your imprisonment, then the flowers put forth
and spring, and then the sun shall scatter the mists, and the
manuring hand of the tiller shall root up all that burdens the soil,
without thank to your bondage.
Natural Character of the English. — The Englishman, of many
other nations, is least atheistical, and bears a natural disposition
of much reverence and awe towards the Deity ; but, in his weak-
ness, and want of instruction (which among us too frequently is
neglected, especially by the meaner sort), turning the bent of his
own wits, with a scrupulous and ceaseless care what he might do
to inform himself aught of Qod and his worship, he may fall
not unlikely sometimes, as any other land-man, into an uncouth
opinion. And, verily, if we look at his native towardliness in
the rough cast without breeding, some nation or other may haply
be better composed to a natural civility than he. But, if he get
the benefit once of a wise and well-rectified nurture, — which must
come in general from the godly vigilance of the Church,— I sup-
pose that, wherever mention is made of countries1 manners or
men, the English people, among the first that shall be praised.
374 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
may deserve to be accounted a right pious, right honest, and
right hardy nation.
The Prdatists and the Irish Rebellion. — What can the Irish
subject do less, in God's just displeasure against us, than revenge
upon English bodies the little care that our Prelates have had of
their souls? Nor hath their negligence been new in that Island,
but even notorious in Queen Elizabeth's days, as Camden, their
known friend, forbears not to complain. Yet so little are they
touched with remorse of these their cruelties (for these cruelties
are theirs, the bloody revenge of those souls which they have
famished) that, — whenas against our brethren the Scots, who by
their upright and loyal deeds have now bought themselves an
honourable name to posterity, whatsoever malice by slander could
invent, rage in hostility attempt, they greedily attempted, — toward
these murderous Irish, the enemies of God and mankind, a cursed
offspring of their own connivance, no man takes notice but that
they seem to be very calmly and indifferently affected. Where,
then, should we begin to extinguish a rebellion that hath his
cause from the misgovernment of the Church ? Where, but at
the Church's reformation ? . . . But it will be here said that the
reformation is a long work, and the miseries of Ireland are urgent
of a speedy redress. They be indeed ; and how speedy we are,—
the poor afflicted remnant of our martyred countrymen, that sit
there on the sea-shore counting the hours of our delay with their
sighs, and the minutes with their falling tears, perhaps with the
distilling of their bloody wounds, if they have not by this cast
off, and almost cursed, the vain hope of our foundered ships and
aids, can best judge how speedy we are to their relief. But let
their succours be hasted, as all need and reason is, and let not
therefore the reformation, which is the chief est cause of success
and victory, be still procrastinated.
Self-respect: Every man potentially a Priest. — If the love of
God, as a fire sent from Heaven to be ever kept alive upon the
altar of our hearts, be the first principle of all godly and virtuous
actions in men, this pious and just honouring of ourselves is the
second, and may be thought as the radical moisture and fountain-
head whence every laudable and worthy enterprise issues forth.
And, although I have given it the name of a liquid thing, yet
it is not incontinent to bound itself, as humid things are, but
hath in it a most restraining and powerful abstinence to start
back, and globe itself upward from the mixture of any ungenerous
and unbeseeming motion, or any soil wherewith it may peril to
1641-2.] MILTON'S FOURTH PAMPHI 375
stain itself. Something I confess it is to be ashamed of evil-
doing in the presence of any; and to reverence the opinion and
the countenance of a good man rather than a bad, fearing most
in liis sight to offend, goes so far as almost to be virtuous. Yet
this is but still the fear of infamy; and many such, when they
find themselves alone, saving their reputation, will compound with
other scruples, and come to a close treaty with their dearer vices
in secret. But he that holds himself in reverence and due esteem,
both for the dignity of God's image upon him and for the price of
his redemption, which he thinks is visibly marked upon his fore-
head, accounts himself both a fit person to do the noblest and
godliest deeds, and much better worth than to deject and defile,
with such a disbasement and such a pollution as sin is, himself
so highly ransomed and ennobled to a new friendship and filial
relation with God. Nor can he fear so much the offence and
reproach of others as he dreads and would blush at the reflection
of his own severe and modest eye upon himself, if it should see
him doing or imagining that which is sinful, though in the deepest
secrecy. How shall a man know to do himself this right, how to
perform this honourable duty of estimation and respect towards
his own soul and body ? What way will lead him best to this
hill-top of sanctity and goodness, above which there is no higher
ascent but to the love of God, which from this self-pious regard
cannot be asunder? No better way, doubtless, than to let him
duly understand that, as he is called by the high calling of God to
be holy and pure, so is he by the same appointment ordained, and
by the Church's call admitted, to such offices of discipline in the
Church to which his own spiritual gifts, by the example of Apo-
stolic institution, have authorized him. For we have learnt that
the scornful term of Laic, the consecrating of temples, carpets,
and table-cloths, the railing-in of a repugnant and contradictive
Mount Sinai in the Gospel (as if the touch of a lay Christian,
who is nevertheless God's living temple, could profane dead
Judaisms), the exclusion of Christ's people from the offices of
holy discipline through the pride of a usurping clergy, causes the
rest to have an unworthy and abject opinion of themselves, to
approach to holy duties with a slavish fear, and to unholy doings
with a familiar boldness.
But what, anii<l all these powerful incidental passages, is
Milton's own definite conclusion as to the true form of
Church government, the form j.ivscribed by Scripture and
376 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
most accordant to reason ? That it was not Episcopacy, or any
possible modification of Episcopacy, we have known suffi-
ciently from the former pamphlets. But does the present
pamphlet take us so far in advance of these as to inform us,
roundly and distinctly, what form of Church government
Milton desired to see established in England instead of Epi-
scopacy ? It does. It informs us that Milton was at this
time a kind of Presbyterian. The form of Church govern-
ment which he then desired to see set up in England was one
somewhat after the model of the Presbyterian Kirk of Scot-
land as restored by Henderson and the Glasgow Assembly of
1638. As this is a fact not generally recognised, and as
Milton afterwards snapped his connexion with Presbyterian-
ism and turned round upon it with fury as no better than
Episcopacy, it may be well to bring the matter out by specific
quotation.
At the very outset of his pamphlet Milton declares the
question respecting Church government to be " whether it
ought to be Presbyterial or Prelatical " ; nay, shortly after-
wards (chap, iii.), he has a sentence which shows that at this
time there was little dream either in his mind or in that of
people round him of the possibility of any form of Church
government that should not be definable as the one or the
other of these two. " This position," he says, " is to be first
" laid down as granted, that one of these two, and none other,
" is of God's ordaining." Nor is he long in announcing his
own conclusion. After having spoken of those recent re-
searches of Usher which brought in view not merely ordinary
Bishoprics, but the larger ecclesiastical jurisdictions of Metro-
politan Bishops and Patriarchs, and having referred to Brere-
wood's attempt to settle the exact boundaries of the three
great Patriarchates of Home, Alexandria, and Antioch, and to
determine in what relation to these Britain stood, he adds : " I
" shall in the meanwhile not cease to hope, through the mercy
" and grace of Christ, the head and husband of his Church,
" that England shortly is to belong neither to see Patriarchal
" nor see Prelatical, but to the faithful feeding and disciplin-
" ing of that ministerial order which the blessed Apostles
1641-2.J FOURTH PAMPHLET : ITS PRESBYTERIANISM. 377
" constituted throughout the Churches ; and this I shall assay
" to prove can be no other than that of Presbyters and
" Deacons." He contends, accordingly, that in the Apostolic
or primitive days of the Church disputes were settled not by
the authority of individuals, but by Councils ; " from which,
" by anything that can be learnt from the 15th of the Ads,
" no faithful Christian was debarred to whom knowledge
" and piety might give entrance."
So far, in avowing his preference for the democratic over
the hierarchical constitution of a church, Milton regards
himself as declaring for Presbyterianism. But he is more
specific. Not only does he think of Councils or General
Assemblies over a whole country as the courts of last resort
in cases of Church dispute, but he thinks of such Assemblies
as constituted or led up to by smaller and more local bodies,
each acting on the same principle of free debate and vote.
" Of such a Council as this," he says, speaking of a Council
of the Church over a large tract of territory, " every Parochial
" Consistory is a right homogeneous and constituting part ;
" being in itself as it were a little Synod, and towards a
" General Assembly moving upon her own basis in an even
" and firm progression, as those smaller squares in battle
" unite in one great cube, the phalanx, an emblem of truth
" and stedfastness." In contrast to this image of Presbyterial
organization as a perfect cube, he then presents the image of
the Prelatic or hierarchical organization as a pyramid, taper-
ing from base to apex ; and, with a curious ingenuity in the
language of solid geometry, he compares the occasional
attempts of such an organization to remedy its own defects
by Convocations and Councils in extreme cases to abortive
efforts of a pyramid to become fluid so as to be able for
the nonce to " inglobe " or " incube " itself. In his image of
tin Presbyterial government, it will be observed, he confines
himself to mentioning the smallest unit and the largest of
the cubical system : the Parochial Consistory, or court of the
individual parish or congregation, answering to what the Scots
call the Kirk-session ; and the complete territorial or national
Council, which he expressly calls by its Scottish naim ..t
378 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
General Assembly, but which he calls afterwards, in another
place, a General Presbytery. There is no distinct mention of
the two bodies intermediate, in the Scottish Presbyterian
system, between the Kirk-session and the General or National
Assembly : to wit, the Presbytery, specially so called, or
periodical meeting of office-bearers of a cluster of contiguous
parishes, and the Provincial Synod, or periodical meeting of
all the Presbyters of a shire or other large district. His
language does not imply that he did not contemplate these
gradual or intermediate " cubings," and indeed may be con-
strued to imply that he had such in his mind ; but, on
the other hand, it is possible that Milton did not favour the
stringency of the Scottish gradation up from the constant
Kirk-session through monthly or quarterly Presbyteries and
twice-a-year Synods to the annual General Assembly, but
rather preferred the notion of a multitude of coequal Kirk-
sessions representing and managing individual parishes or
congregations, but merging into Assemblies larger or smaller
as there might be occasion.
In his farther description, however, of the smallest ecclesi-
astical unit, the Parochial Consistory or Kirk-session, and its
relations to the people, Milton does seem to agree pretty
closely with the Scottish system. Distinct from the power
or authority of the civil magistrate, whose punishments may
extend to person and goods, he recognises as still necessary to
the well-being of society a certain organized power of spiritual
or ecclesiastical censure, acting solely on the conscience. In
the early ages of the world this authority of spiritual censure
had been vested, as was also civil authority, in each father of
a family ; in later ages it had been exercised, more or less
laxly, and in conjunction with more or less of civil power, by
Sages and Philosophers among the heathen, and by Prophets
and Scribes and Pharisees among the Jews. Under the
Gospel, however, God had granted more freedom, and was less
the schoolmaster than the indulgent father of sons arrived at
discreet age. " Therefore, in the sweetest and mildest manner
" of paternal discipline, he hath committed this other office
" of preserving in healthful constitution the inner man,
1641-2.] FOURTH PAMPHLET : ITS PKESBYTERIANISM. 379
" which may be termed the spirit of the soul, to his spiritual
" deputy, the Minister of each congregation ; who, being best
" acquainted with his own flock, hath best reason to know all
" the secretest diseases likely to be there." The pastor of
every particular parish or congregation, therefore, is, according
to Milton, to be regarded as the person specially invested with
the power of spiritual censure within that parish or congre-
gation. But he is not to be alone in the office even there.
" The Holy Ghost, by the Apostles, joined to the minister, as
" assistant in this great office sometimes, a certain number of
" grave and faithful brethren. For neither doth the physician
" do all in restoring his patient : he prescribes, another pre-
" pares the medicine ; some tend, some watch, some visit."
On this ground, and because the pastor may err, and also
because " nothing can be more for the mutual honour and love
" of the people to their pastor, and his to them, than when in
" select numbers and courses they are seen partaking and
" doing reverence to the holy duties of discipline by their
" serviceable and solemn presence," there ought to be, round
the pastor in every parish or congregation, a certain number
of lay-elders as his assessors. Milton expressly calls them
" lay-elders," as in the Scottish Presbyterian system, and
defines their duties very much as they are recognised in that
system. They are to assist the pastor in his ministrations,
and, together with him, are to form the parochial consistory,
or congregational court.
It is in describing the duties of this little consistory, or
court of the Pastor and Lay-elders, in every particular parish
or congregation, that Milton brings out most fully his idea of
the true functions of the Church in modern society. Teach-
ing or Doctrine is one of the functions, but by no means the
only one, nor perhaps the most important Besides Teaching
there is the great function of " censure " or " discipline."
The • distinction is explained by a comparison. " Public
" Preaching," says Milton, " is the gift of the Spirit, working
" as best seems to his secret will ; but Discipline is the practic
" work of preaching directed and applied as is most requisite
" to particular duty; without which it were all one to the
380 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" benefit of souls as it would be to the cure of bodies if
" all the physicians in London should get into the several
" pulpits of the city, and, assembling all the diseased in
" every parish, should begin a learned lecture of pleurisies,
" palsies, lethargies, to which perhaps none present were
" inclined, and so, without so much as feeling one pulse, or
" giving the least order to any skilful apothecary, should dis-
" miss 'em from time to time, some groaning, some languishing,
" some expiring, with this only charge, to look well to them-
" selves and do as they hear." In short, Discipline or Censure
is practical spiritual Therapeutics, — dealing with the special
diseases, in the shape of error or evil conduct, that may
present themselves in individuals or in localities. Now,
this function, within each parish or congregation, is vested,
according to Milton, in the above-described consistory or
kirk-session. He dilates at some length on the great effects
that might be produced by a pastor and lay-elders earnestly
and skilfully exercising within their bounds this function of
ecclesiastical censure, confined as they should be to merely
spiritual and moral means of enforcing their authority, and
debarred, as they should be, in a true theory of the Church,
from every pretence of jurisdiction. Armed with the power-
ful weapons of Admonition and Eeproof, the minister, where
there was an errant member of his flock, might first privately
deal with him to recover him. This failing, the counsel of
the lay-assistants might be called in, and stronger measures
of rebuke and remonstrance employed. Shame and the fear
of exposure are, next to innate purity and magnanimity, the
most effective motives to virtuous conduct. But, if a case
proved desperate, if some evil-doer were obdurate in his ini-
quity, then the whole church or congregation might be called
in ; for, though censure is ordinarily vested in the minister
and elders, it is not so vested but that, in extreme cases, all
the brethren must participate. For a time, therefore, the
whole Church beseech the obstinate sinner, deplore him, pray
for him. " After all this performed with what patience and
" attendance is possible, and no relenting on his part, having
" done the utmost of their cure, in the name of God and of
1641-2.] FOURTH PAMPHLET: ITS PRESBYTERIANISM. 381
" the Church they dissolve their fellowship with him, and,
" holding forth the dreadful sponge of excommunion, pro-
" nounce him wiped out of the list of God's inheritance and
" in the custody of Satan till he repent." Even this horrid
sentence of excommunication, however, must be purely
spiritual, a mere dissolution of fellowship with the person
so punished, and without the least consequence, except what
may be produced through opinion, to life, or limb, or any
worldly possession. Nothing is more striking than the deep
ideal faith in the efficacy of the great dynamic forces of Love,
Fear, Shame, and the like, unaided by any civil rewards or
penalties, which pervades all this portion of Milton's pam-
phlet. It is the superiority of the Presbyterian system of
Church government, as he conceives it, in this respect of its
more complete trust in these dynamic forces, and its greater
capacity in using them, that chiefly recommends it to him.
" So little is it," he says, " that I fear lest any crooked-
" ness, any wrinkle or spot, should be found in Presbyterial
" government, that, if Bodin, the famous French writer,
" though a Papist, yet affirms that the commonwealth which
" maintains this discipline will certainly flourish in virtue
" and piety, I dare assure myself that every true Protestant
" will admire the integrity, the uprightness, the divine and
" gracious purposes thereof, and, even for the reason of it,
" so coherent with the doctrine of the Gospel, besides the
" evident command of Scripture, will confess it to be the only
" true Church government." One item in Milton's con-
ception of such Church government remains to be noted. As
the pastor and lay-elders of any parish were sometimes to
merge themselves in the whole congregation for the exercise
of Church discipline, so, Milton clearly hints, they ought
originally to be elected by the congregation.
That Milton's theory of Church government, so expounded,
accorded in all points with the system of the contemporary
Scottish Kirk, or that the straiter Presbyterian Scottish critics,
like Buillir <»r Gillespie, would not have found flaws and de-
ficiencies on it, some taint of Brownism or Independency,
or at least a gnu -r.il \ will hardly be asserted. After
382 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
all, however, the difference was to be attributed mainly to the
fact that here was a free English mind thinking for itself,
coming to the essential Presbyterian conclusions in its own
way, and expressing them in their dynamical aspects rather
than with attention to all points of the rigid mechanism. All
the more on this account was this a writer at whom the Scot-
tish Presbyterian leaders, Henderson, Baillie, Eutherford, and
Gillespie, might look with interest. Might they not think of
him as likely to aid them in the task which they had so much
at heart, and on behalf of which they too were printing pam-
phlets in London ? l Was he not contributing also to the for-
mation of a sufficient Presbyterian opinion in England, and
so to an ecclesiastical uniformity between the two kingdoms ?
That some of the Scottish Presbyterians saw and read this
pamphlet of Milton's may be assumed as certain. If they
wondered at first how there should be so much of the root
of the matter in an Englishman of Cambridge training, the
mystery might have been solved for some of them by the
information that he was an associate of the Smectymnuans,
and had been a pupil of Mr. Young of Stowmarket.
Milton took express pains that the world should know
something about himself in connexion with this pamphlet.
It can hardly have been merely because people had already
been talking of him in connexion with his former pamphlets
that, not content with simply putting his name to this one,
he inserted the extraordinary chapter of autobiography which
opens the Second Book. For any ordinary purpose, in any
ordinary pamphlet, such a chapter would be a mere excess of
egotism. But this was no ordinary pamphlet, nor was Mil-
ton's purpose ordinary. He had thrown himself into a great
work. He had done so reluctantly but deliberately, not con-
cealing from himself, on the one hand, what sacrifices it might
require of him, nor, on the other, how important it might be
1 I may note here, by way of co- [sic] in Scotland : London : Printed for
incidence, a pamphlet of Baillie's Thos. Underhill, at the Bible in Wood
published in London about the time Street : 1641. The coincidence is the
of the publication of Milton's Reason more worth noting because the pub-
of Church Government, and to the same lisher of this pamphlet, Underhill, was
effect. It is entitled The Unlawfulnesse the publisher of Milton's first three
and Danger of Limited Episcopacie, &c. , pamphlets.
by Robert Baillie, Pastor of Kilwunning
1641-2.] FOURTH PAMPHLET: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. 383
for his countrymen that he had assumed this hard office. 1 1 » •
had been talked of for his former pamphlets, and he knew he
would be much more talked of by the world ere he left it.
Let him therefore burst all bounds of common literary re-
straint, and, while delivering a message to his countrymen,
tell them frankly what sort of man the messenger was. This
might really import much to the message itself. It was no
mere book he was publishing, no mere literary performance
to be enjoyed or admired, irrespectively of knowledge of its
author. It was a prophecy like those of old, and as full of
thundering. People were entitled therefore to see his per-
sonal warrant. " Who are you" they might justly say, " that
talk in this high strain ? Is it all mere mouth ? If we
saw the man to whom the mouth belongs, and knew him
thoroughly, heart, look, and life, should we listen or should
we laugh ? Come forth and show yourself ! " Exactly on this
principle, Milton did come forth. In one entire chapter he
gives a summary, but exact, account of himself, his previous
history, and his recent occupations. " This is the kind of man
I am," he virtually says ; " such has been my life from my
childhood hitherto ; these are my credentials. Even on
such a ground as this, I do, before God, believe that you are
bound to listen to me ; but judge for yourselves." And,
whatever may have been thought at the time by English
readers of the pamphlet, we • now are thankful for that
chapter, and read it with reverence.
Nothing can be more dreadful, Milton begins, than for a
conscientious man, possessed by some truth which he feels
himself commissioned to express, but who is at the same time
a lover of peace, to find himself a cause of variance and dis-
cord. " This is that which the sad prophet, Jeremiah, laments,
" Woe is me, my mother, tli«t thou Jiast borne me a man of
" strife and contention ! " All prophets, Heathen as well as
Hebrew, had felt this sorrow. In his own case there was an
additional trouble. That he, an uutitled Englishman, still in
his "green years," had come forward to denounce Prelacy,
and. in doing so, to oppose the traditions of his country, and
" contest with men of high estimation," might IK- imputed, —
384 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
nay, he had found, had been imputed, — to " some self-pleasing
humour of vain-glory." Nothing could be farther from the
fact. Had he consulted mere natural inclination, had he
followed out the plans he had laid for his own life, had he
persisted in doing what he could do best and should have
had most of personal enjoyment in doing, he would not now
have been attacking Episcopacy, or writing pamphlets at all.
Very different was the work to which he had been looking
forward. Until this turmoil in England, all his hopes, all his
projects, had pointed to a purely intellectual or speculative
life, a life dedicated to the very noblest and calmest of all the
Muses. It had been his happy lot, through the ceaseless care
and diligence of one of the best of fathers, — " whom God
recompense," he adds, signifying that his good father was yet
alive, — to receive the best education, " by sundry masters and
teachers both at home and at the schools," that England
could afford. Even in those his youthful days, his calling to
literature had been apparent. " It was found that, whether
" aught was imposed upon me by them that had the overlook -
" ing, or betaken to of mine own choice, in English or other
" tongue, prosing or versing, but chiefly the latter, the style,
" by certain vital signs it had, was likely to live." Of his
English poems already published Milton makes no mention.
He passes at once to his journey to Italy, and the cordial
nature of his reception among the scholars there, especially
in their meetings in the literary Academies. " I began," he
says, " thus far to assent both to them and divers friends here
" at home, and not the less to an inward prompting which
" now daily grew upon me, that, by labour and intent study
" (which I take to be my portion in this life) joined with
" the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave some-
" thing so written to after times as they should not willingly
" let it die." Connected with this thought of a life of in-
tense devotion to literature, and of some great master-work
in particular that might grow out of such a life, there was,
he says, another thought. Latin was the language in which
most Englishmen, or at least most Englishmen of the
learned as distinct from the popular class, had chosen
1641-2.] FOURTH PAMPHLET : AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. 385
to write their greatest works. They had sought, like the
learned writers of France, Italy, and Germany, to address the
entire world of Europe. He himself (this he does not say,
but it is well to note it) had used the Latin tongue in his
writings nearly as much as the English. But, while making
up his mind to a career wholly devoted to literature, he had
come to a new resolution. In such a career, if his works
should have any chance of endurance, his immediate care, he
had come to see, ought to be the " honour and instruction " of
his own country. " For which cause," he continues, " and
" not only for that I knew it would be hard to arrive at the
" second rank among the Latins, I applied myself to that
" resolution which Ariosto followed against the persuasions of
" Bembo, to fix all the industry and art I could unite to the
" adorning of my native tongue, — not to make verbal curi-
" osities the end (that were a toilsome vanity), but to be an
" interpreter and relater of the best and sagest things among
" mine own citizens throughout this Island in the mother
"dialect, — that what the greatest and choicest wits of
" Athens, Rome, or modern Italy, and those Hebrews of
" old, did for their country, I, in my proportion, with this
" over and above of being a Christian, might do for mine ;
" not caring to be once named abroad, though perhaps I
" could attain to that, but content with these British Islands
"as my world, whose fortune hath hitherto been that, if
" the Athenians, as some say, made their small deeds great
" and renowned by their eloquent writers, England hath
" had her noble achievements made small by the unskilful
" handling of monks and mechanics." What have we here
but a repetition publicly of what we heard Milton saying
to himself privately, two years before, in his Epitaphium
Damonis ? l —
" What then 1 For one to do all things,
One to hope all things, fits not ! Prize sufficiently ample
Mine, and distinction great (unheard-of ever thereafter
Though I should be, and inglorious, all through the world of the
stranger),
» Anti, pp. 91, 92.
VOL. n 2 c
386 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
If but yellow-haired Ouse shall read me, the drinker of Alan,
Humber, which whirls as it flows, and Trent's whole valley of
orchards,
Thames, my own Thames, above all, and Tamar's western waters
Tawny with ores, and where the white waves swinge the far
Orkneys."
Eeturning to England, he says, with these plans and resolu-
tions, he had employed himself in meditations as to the proper
subject and form for his intended English poem. Here,
though Milton says nothing of the long list of subjects for
tragedies, from Scripture and from British History, which we
know he had written out, and which may have been on his
desk in Aldersgate Street while he was penning this very
pamphlet, he describes in the most exact manner those hesi-
tations of his as to form and subject, those changing schemes
of his mind " at home in the spacious circuits of her musing,"
of which we have cited that list as documentary proof I1 But,
whatever subject and form he might finally choose, the poem
should at least be an example of new nobleness in English
Literature ! The corrupt state into which that Literature had
fallen of late, and especially the depravation of the youth
and gentry of England by " the writings and interludes of
libidinous and ignorant poetasters," were matters of serious
national concern. It might even be well if the Magistracy and
Government were to take these matters to some extent within
their charge, managing the public sports and pastimes, like
the famous Governments of old, and arranging that not only
in the pulpit, but in academies, and by wise and artful public
recitations, and at " set and solemn panagories in theatres,
porches, or what other place and way may win most
upon the people to receive at once both recreation and
instruction," there should be the means of the highest,
richest, and most exquisite popular culture. His own
contribution to the Literature of England, at all events,
should be one conceived according to this standard !
1 Ante, pp. 103—119.
1641-2.] FOURTH PAMPHLET : AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. 387
Could it have been vain-glory, he proceeds, that had torn
him from such dreams as these ? Was there any tiling so
charming in controversy for its own sake, anything so glorious
in fighting with blockheads and bishops, that a man who had
such a private Elysium of poetic schemings and studies to
rejoice in, and whose means permitted him to remain there
without anxiety or perturbation, should voluntarily leave
that Elysium to become an an ti- Episcopal pamphleteer ?
And why, then, had he taken this step ? Solely, he declares,
from a sense of duty : —
" For me, I have determined to lay up as the best treasure and
solace of a good old age, if God vouchsafe it me, the honest liberty
of free speech from my youth, where I shall think it available in
so dear a concernment as the Church's good. For, if I be, either
by disposition or what other cause, too inquisitive or suspicious
of myself and mine own doings, who can help it? But this I
foresee, — that, should the Church be brought under heavy oppres-
sion, and God have given me ability the while to reason against
that man that should be the author of so foul a deed, or should
she, by blessing from above on the industry and courage of faith-
ful men, change this her distracted estate into better days without
the least furtherance or contribution of those few talents which
God at that present had lent me, — I foresee what stories I should
hear within myself, all my life after, of discourage and reproach : —
' Timorous and ungrateful, the Church of God is now again at the
foot of her insulting enemies, and thou bewailest ! What matters
it for thee or thy bewailing ? When time was, thou couldst not
find a syllable of all that thou hadst read or studied to utter in
her behalf. Yet ease and leisure was given thee for thy retired
thoughts out of the sweat of other men. Thou hadst the diligence,
the parts, the language of a man, if a vain subject were to be
adorned or beautified ; but, when the cause of God and his
Church was to be pleaded, for which purpose that tongue was
given thee which thou hast, God listened if he could hear thy
voice among his zealous servants, but thou wort dumb as a beast
From henceforward be that which thim own brutish silence hath
made thee ! ' Or else I should have heard on the other ear : —
* Slothful and ever to be set light by, the Church hath now over-
come her late distresses after the unwearied labours of many, her
true servants, that stood up in her defence. Thou also wouldst take
388 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
upon thee to share amongst them of their joy ; but wherefore thou 1
Where canst thou show any word or deed of thine which might
have hastened her peace 1 Whatever thou dost now talk, or write,
or look, is the alms of other men's active prudence and zeal. Dare
not now to say or do anything better than thy former sloth and
infancy ; or, if thou darest, thou dost imprudently, to make a thrifty
purchase of boldness to thyself out of the painful merits of other
men. What before was thy sin is now thy duty to be, — abject and
worthless ! ' These, and such-like lessons as these, I know, would
have been my matins duly and my even-song. But now by this
little diligence mark what a privilege I have gained ! with good men
and saints, to claim my right of lamenting the tribulations of the
Church, if she should suffer, when others that have ventured
nothing for her sake have not the honour to be admitted mourners ;
but, if she lift up her drooping head and prosper, among those that
have something more than wished her welfare / have my charter
and freehold of rejoicing to me and my heirs."
In addition to these general reasons, affecting all English-
men, there was a particular reason in his case for taking part
in this battle. He had himself been intended for the Church
by his parents and friends, and in his own resolutions, until,
arriving at an age when he could judge what the Church was,
he had recoiled from it in disgust, and preferred being a lay-
man all his life to being a perjured or servile priest. All the
more was he bound, now that there was a chance, to assist in
restoring the Church to such a condition that future free and
young spirits, the flower of English manhood, might enter her
service without degradation. It was a great work ; but was it
one which lie was likely to have chosen for mere personal satis-
faction ? Who that knew him could think so ? Surely, if he
" hunted after praise by the ostentation of art and learning," he
would not thus be writing " out of his own season." He would
not be writing rough pamphlets for the mere hasty perusal
of a passing hour. If left to himself, would he have chosen
prose at all for his element ? That was a manner of writing
in which he knew himself to be inferior to himself, and in
which he had the use but of his " left hand." If, therefore,
he had interrupted his own natural pursuits, and forsaken a
1641-2.] FOURTH PAMPHI.KT: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. 389
calm and pleasing solitariness, " to embark in a troubled sea
of noises and hoarse disputes," let his reasons for doing so be
understood by his countrymen. Nay, he would make them
a promise. He had taken his countrymen so far into his
confidence as to tell them of his literary projects, and
especially of the great English Poem that had been shaping
itself in his dreams. Well, as to those projects, and as to
that intended English poem, let this pledge (Feb. or March
1641-2) be registered: —
"The accomplishment of them lies not but in a power above
man's to promise ; but that none hath by more studious ways
endeavoured, and with more unwearied spirit that none shall, — that
I dare almost aver of myself, as far as life and free leisure will ex-
tend, and that the land had once enfranchised herself from this im-
pertinent yoke of Prelaty, under whose inquisitorious and tyrannical
duncery no free and splendid wit can flourish. Neither do I think
it shame to covenant with any knowing reader that for some few
years yet I may go on trust with him toward the payment of what I
am now indebted, as being a work not to be raised from the heat of
youth, or the vapours of wine, like that which flows at waste from
the pen of some vulgar amorist, or the trencher fury of a riming
parasite, nor to be obtained by the invocation of Dame Memory
and her Siren Daughters, but by devout prayer to that Eternal
Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends
out his seraphim with the hallowed fire of his altar to touch and
purify the lips of whom he pleases. To this must be added
industrious and select reading, steady observation, insight into all
seemly and generous arts and affairs ; till which in some measure
be compassed at mine own peril and cost, I refuse not to sustain
this expectation from as many as are not loth to hazard so much
credulity upon the best pledges that I can give them."
The reader has by this time had enough perhaps of Milton
speaking about himself. By way of variation he may like
now to have a specimen of what other people were saying
and publishing about Milton. Here, accordingly, is the open-
ing or preface of a pamphlet, written wholly and specially
against Milton, whit -h was out in London only a week or two
after that of Milton from which we have been quoting. The
390 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
circulations of the two pamphlets must indeed have clashed
in some English households : —
"To THE READER.
" Reader : If thou hast any general or particular concernment in
the affairs of these times, or but natural curiosity, thou art ac-
quainted with the late and hot bickerings between the Prelates and
Smectymnuans. To make up the breaches of whose solemn scenes
(it were too ominous to say tragical) there is thrust forward upon
the stage, as also to take the ear of the less intelligent, a scurrilous
Mime, — a personated, and, as himself thinks, a grim, lowering, bitter
Fool. I have no farther notice of him than he hath been pleased,
in his immodest and injurious Libel, to give of himself, and there-
fore, as our industrious critics, for want of clearer evidence con-
cerning the life and manners of some revived authors, must fetch
his character from some scattered passages in his own writings. It
seems he hath been initiated in the Arts by Jack Seton and
Bishop Downam,1 confirmed a logician ; and, as he says his com-
panions did, it is like he ' spent his youth in loitering, bezzling, and
harloting.' Thus, being grown to an imposthume in the breast of
the University, he was at length vomited out thence into a suburb
sink about London ; which, since his coming up, hath groaned
under two ills, — him and the Plague. Where his morning haunts
are I wist not ; but he that would find him after dinner must search
the playhouses or the bordelli, for there I have traced him. [Here,
in justification of this inference respecting Milton's afternoon haunts
and habits, the author quotes from Milton's pamphlets these phrases
from the Playhouse or worse, — old cloaks, false beards, tires, cases,
periwigs, Modena vizards, night-walking cudgellers, salt-lotion.'] Marry,
of late, since he was out of wit and clothes, as Stilpo merrily jeered
the poor starveling Crates, he is now clothed in serge and confined
to a parlour ; whence he blasphemes God and the King, as ordi-
narily erewhile he drank sack and swore. Hear him speak [here
are introduced a few coarsish passages from Milton]. Christian,
dost thou like these passages 1 or doth thy heart rise against such
unseemly beastliness ? Nay, but take this head [another quotation
from Milton]. Horrid blasphemy ! You that love Christ and know
this miscreant wretch, stone him to death, lest yourselves smart for
his impunity. This is my adversary ; to encounter whom at his
own weapons I am much too weak, and must despair of victory,
unless it may be gotten by the strength of a good cause and a
modest defence of it. I dare not say but there may be hid in my
nature as much venomous Atheism and profanation as hath broken
out at his lips (every one that is infected with the sickness hath
1 This means that Milton had been Kerry, and who died in 1634, had
educated at Cambridge, — where Seton's taught the Ramist Logic from and after
Logic was an established text-book, and 1590. See ant$, Vol. I. pp. 262—265,
where Downham, afterwards Bishop of footnotes.
1642] ATTACK ON MILTON BY THE HALLS. 391
not the sores running upon him) ; of which should I be as lavish
as he hath been, it might be said of us that we encountered one the
other like a toad and a spider, and each died of the other's poison,
or, whiles we should seem to fall out about some petty matters in
Religion, we well enough agreed together to be eminently wicked.
It is my prayer to God that all those and the like scandals with
which he and I may grieve the Church may be forgiven to him
and prevented in me, and that in his good time Himself would
undertake the curing of his Church's wounds, which, by the
ignorance of some and malice of others, are likely to be but worse
for the plaster. — Farewell ! "
These are refreshing observations, and in beautiful taste.
Whose are they ? As far as is known, they are Bishop Hall's,
or his son's, or a concoction by the father and the son between
them. Here we must go back a little in our story.
The reader has not forgotten the Smectymnuan series of
Pamphlets. These were (1) Bishop Hall's Humble Remon-
strance, the origin of all, published in January 1640-41 ; (2)
the bulky Smectymnuan Answer to the Humble Remonstrance,
published in March 1640-41 ; (3) Bishop Hall's Defence of
the Humble Remonstrance against Smectymnuus, published in
April 1641 ; (4) The Smectymnuan rejoinder entitled A Vin-
dication of the Answer to the Humble Remonstrance, published
in June 1641 ; and (5) Milton's Animadversions upon the Re-
monstrant, written in aid of his friends the Smectymnuans,
and published in July 1641.
So far the Smectymuuans had had the last word. Nay,
they had twice had the last word, — first, in No. 4 of the series,
or their own " Vindication of their Answer," and next in No.
5, or Milton's auxiliary " Animadversions." But Hall was not
the man to leave matters in this state. In July or August
1641 there had appeared A Short Answer to the Tedious
Vindication of Smectymnuus : By the Autlwr of the Humble
Remonstrance? This formed No. 6 of the Smectymnuan series
of pamphlets, and was intended as a demolition of No. 4.
It consists of 1 1 9 pages in all, and is in Hall's usual style,
going back upon the " Areopagi," the " light froth," &c.2 The
1 " Printed for Nathaniel Butter, in in the Stationers' Books July 28,
Paul's Churchyard, at the Pyde Bull, 1611.
near St. Austin's Gate " : Registered * See a*#, pp. 254, 256.
392 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
reader need be troubled with no more of it here than the
concluding sentences. " Since I see," Hall there says, " that
" our Smectymnuans have vowed (like as some impetuous
" scolds are wont to do) to have the last word, and have set up
" a resolution (taking advantage of their multitude) to tire
" out their better-employed adversary with mere length of
" discourse, and to do that by bulk of body which by clear
" strength they cannot, I have determined to take off my
" hand from this remaining controversy of Episcopacy
•' (wherein I have said enough, without the return of answer,
" and indeed anticipated all their thread -bare objections
" which are here again regested to the weary reader), and to
" turn off my combined opposites to matches more fit for their
" age and quality : with this profession notwithstanding, —
" that, if I shall find (which I hope I never shall) this just
" and holy cause (whether out of insensibleness or cautious
" reservedness) neglected by more able defenders, I shall
" borrow so much time from my better thoughts as to bestow
" some strictures where I may not afford a large confutation."1
Whether, when Hall wrote these words, he had seen No. 5 of
the Smectymnuan series — i.e. Milton's Animadversions — must
remain doubtful. Quite possibly not ; for Milton's pamphlet,
though in order it is No. 5 of the Smectymnuan series, seems
to have appeared almost simultaneously with this No. 6. Or
it may be that the above closing words of No. 6 contain an
allusion to No. 5 as having just come into Hall's hands,
but too late to be noticed by him in the pamphlet then at
press, and which was a reply to the Smectymnuan No. 4.
But that this No. 5, those anonymous Animadversions on
the Remonstrant, should be out in the world unanswered
must have been an annoyance to Hall. For this anonymous
auxiliary to the Smectymnuans was a much more formidable
adversary than the Smectymnuans themselves. Here was
no mere heavy plodder, reasoning on the subjects of Liturgy
and Episcopacy, but a man who could intermingle his reason-
ings on these subjects with thoughts of power, and passages
1 Pp. 102, 103, of pamphlet.
1642.] ATTACK ON MILTON BY THE HALLS. 393
of eloquence and invective. Nay, what was hardest to bear,
here was a man to whom Hall's whole literary, as well as
his Episcopal career, seemed to be familiar, and who had
evidently an extreme contempt for his abilities as well as a
dislike of his principles. That one whose reputation in the
English world of letters dated from the days of Elizabeth
should now, in his sixty-eighth year, be held up to scorn by
an anonymous critic as only a low-tempered practitioner of
spurious rhetoric was too much to be borne. For still the
worst of it was that the anonymous critic was evidently not
a nobody, but a man himself cultivated in letters and the
history of letters, with a genius that could soar, as well as
a wit that could sting. To suppose, for example, that Hall
could have read that extraordinary burst of prayer in the
Animadversions beginning " 0, if we freeze at noon " (see
ant&, pp. 267-8), without recognising in the writer some one
more than his own equal in poetic expression, would be simply
to suppose that Hall, with all his literary celebrity, did not
know what literary merit was. There is not the least doubt,
however, that Hall did appreciate, more than was comfort-
able for himself, the powers of his new antagonist.
As the Animadversions had been in circulation since July
1641, the wonder is that Hall, who wrote readily, had not at
once published an answer. But the autumn of 1641 had
passed, and the next winter, and even the spring of 1641-2,
and still no reply had appeared. There may have been
various reasons for this. Actually too much amazed at first
to answer, Hall may have afterwards found it best for a
while to assume the " silent contempt " mood ; or he may
have taken refuge in his declaration, in the end of his last
pamphlet, that, for his part, the Smectymnuan controversy
should now be at an end, unless something extraordinary
happened. Then, from October onwards, there had been
the unusual press of Church business in Parliament, occupy-
ing the thoughts and time of all the Bishops there, and
»-in ling at Christmas with the imprisonment of Hall and his
brother Bishops for their famous Protest. Hall remained a
prisoner in the Tower eighteen weeks in all, or from Christmas
394 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
1641 till May 5, 1642 ; during which time, however, the
custody of him and the other Bishops was not so strict but
that they might see visitors and friends. In the Tower,
accordingly, if not before, Hall had leisure to think of those
unanswered Animadversions. But, indeed, he had been
thinking of them before. He had been making inquiries
respecting the author.1 There being no real concealment of
Milton's name, and the fact of his being a Cambridge man
having been ascertained, it was easy for Hall, himself a
Cambridge man, to find out more. Could they tell him
anything down at Cambridge of the character and college
reputation of one Milton, who had been at Christ's, and had
taken his master's degree in or about 1632? Such, in effect,
was the tenor of Hall's inquiries, whether sent to Cambridge,
or only put incidentally to people likely to know. And to
assist Hall in such inquiries, and in fact make them for
him, there was his son, the Rev. Robert Hall, M.A., Canon-
residentiary of Hall's old see of Exeter, but now much in
London. This Rev. Robert Hall, the Bishop's eldest son,
had been incorporated into Oxford and had taken his M.A.
degree there ; but he had received his first academic edu-
cation, and taken his B.A. degree, at Cambridge.2 He was
about two years Milton's senior, and they may have been at
Cambridge for some time together. In short, Hall, having
made up his mind at last that it would be useful to notice
the Animadversions, did, some time after the commencement
of 1642, publish such a notice or authorize its publication.
" A Modest Confutation of a Slanderous and Scurrilous Libell
intituled Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence
against Smectymnuus : Printed in the year 1642 ": such is
the title of this new pamphlet ; which we may call No. 7 of
the Smectymnuan series. The writer (if rumour at the time,
and the style and manner of the pamphlet itself, are to be
taken as proof) was mainly Hall ; but parts may have been
written by his son, who may also have acted as editor.
i Our authority for this is Milton 2 Wood's Fasti : I. 449, and II. 69.
himself, who had been informed of the Hall was made D.D. of Oxford in
fact : see sequel. 1643.
1642.] ATTACK ON MILTON BY THE HALLS. 395
It is from this pamphlet, copies of which must now be
extremely scarce,1 that we have already extracted, for the
reader's entertainment, the beautiful opening Address, in
which Milton is described as a blackguard whom the
University had " vomited forth," and who was now living,
no one knew how, in a " suburb-sink " of London. The
pamphlet, however, is a longish affair. It consists of 40
small quarto pages, divided numerically into twelve sections.
In each section a portion of the Animadversions is cited and
replied to. Without taking much account of what is again
said on the subjects of Episcopacy and the Liturgy, let us
attend chiefly to the personalities between Milton and Hall
with which the pamphlet abounds.
There is, of course, plenty of reiterated abuse of Milton
in the style of the opening Address to the Reader. " Such
carping poetasters as you," says the Confuter in one place,
showing that he knew of Milton's pretensions to poetry.
" Which shows," he says in another place, referring to a
disagreeable simile of Milton's, " that you can be as bold
with a Prelate as familiar with your laundress." In a third
place, referring to an incidental phrase of Milton's, to the
effect that, though no Bishop, he could discuss such and
such topics, the Confuter says ironically that it had been
thought by some that, when philosophers had denounced
riches, and pleasures, and high places, it had often been on
the principle of the Fox in the fable, who called the grapes
sour that were out of his reach. He will not be so uncha-
ritable, however, as to suppose, in the case of the author of
the Animadversions, that it was mortified ambition in not
having seen his own way to high rank in the Church that
had made him such an Anti-Prelatist By all accounts, he
had other and more practicable aims. " A rich widow, or
a lecture, or both, contents you." A good deal of Milton's
pamphlet, it is hinted, was written to win the widow. "To
" thf first (i.e. the widow) you make way by a long, tedious,
> In a copy of tho pamphlet among Mr. Milton " arc written on
the King's Pamphlet* in tho Britten page in a contemporary hand.
the title-
Museum (E.1-*4) the word* "Against
396 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
" theatrical, bigmouthed, astounding prayer, put up in the
" name of the Three Kingdoms," — this is that extraordinary
prayer in the Animadversions with which, on mere literary
grounds, we have supposed it impossible that Hall should
not have been struck, — " not so much to please God or benefit
" the weal-public by it as to intimate your own good abilities
" to her that is your rich hopes : —
" ' Petit Gemellus nuptias Maronillse,
Et cupit, et instat, et precatur.' "
But, amid much to the like effect, there is a constant return
on the subject of Milton's bizarre and piebald style. He is
strongly taken to task, in particular, for his profanity and
bad taste in having mix^ed coarse and slang terms with the
discussion of sacred matters. " What moral precept in
" Solomon," asks the Confuter, " countenances such language
" as this : scum, ladles, kitchen, physic, 'brawn, beef, kickshaws,
" and crambo-prayers, motley and patched incoherences, with
" heypass-repass and the mystical man of Sturbridge, your
" barber leading in Balaams ass, Christ and his Apostles,
" capon and white-broth, in the same leaf ; Esau's red pottage
<( and a spur-galled galloway ; bastards and centaurs of
" spiritual fornications ; a Christian ministers surplice and
" an Egyptian priest's frock in the same suds ; your primer o
" of piety, cogging of dice into heaven ; gleeking and Bacchanalia,
" and flanks and briskets, &c." ? The phrases in italics are
all quoted from Milton's pamphlet as instances of his bad
taste, the Confuter winding up, " Such language you should
" scarce hear from the mouths of canting beggars at an
" heathen altar ; much less was it looked for in a treatise
" of controversial theology." Then, among other things,
Milton's defence of the philological slip of the Smectymnuans
in the matter of the Areopagi is redargued, and his references
to Bacon declared invalid, and met by counter-citations of
Bacon, Sandys, Machiavelli, and others.
In most of these passages of abuse of Milton I detect Hall's
own hand. His hand may also be distinctly detected in those
parts of the pamphlet which are defences of himself, although
1642.] ATTACK ON MILTON BY THE HALLS. 397
here much is so directly and luxuriantly eulogistic of the
Prelate's character and career that it must be attributed to the
filial hand of his coadjutor. Milton's contemptuous references
to Hall's purely literary performances, — his English Satires,
and his Latin burlesque Mundiis Alter et Idem, — had evidently
been very nettling ; and there is, accordingly, a special and
rather long defence of the Satires. "You begin with his
" youth," says the Confuter, addressing Milton ; " the sport
" and leisure of his youth, even that must be raked out of
" the dust, and cited to witness against him, as it were to
" disparage the holiness of his age and calling." The Satires
had been written by Hall in his youth, continues the Confuter,
to whip vices from which he had freed himself; "which
" timely zeal, as it did not misbecome his youth, so can it not
" disparage his Prelacy, — no, not as Poesy, not as Satire. The
" first you condemn ; and the latter I will maintain against
" greater critics than you would dare boast to have been con-
" versant with." Then follow two or three pages of critical
defence of the Satires, and of the name that had been given
to them, fortified by a sketch of the history of this form of
literature, and quotations from Horace, Martial, Chaucer, and
Sir David Lindsay. All this is pretty certainly Hall's own ;
but the following, in answer to Milton's epithets, " a false
prophet," " a belly-god, proud and covetous," " a Laodicean,"
" a dissembling Joab," as applied to Hall, must have been
written by his son : — " Good God ! . . view well that heap of
" age and reverence, and say whether that clear and healthful
" constitution, those fresh cheeks and quick eyes, that
" round tongue, agile hand, nimble invention, staid delivery,
11 quiet, calm and happy bosom, be the effect of three-score
" years' surfeit and gluttony. What time could he steal
" to bestow upon Mammon, the god of this world, whose
" whole life hath been nothing but a laborious search after
" human and divine truths; which having picked out (as
" that little miracle of nature doth honey) from weeds and
" flowers, he did not improper to himself, but liberally
" dealt them to the good of the public ! . . May ye stay for
" such another glorious light of the Church till ye can deserve
398 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
" him ! . . . Had former times shown him, or foreign Churches
" nourished him, he that is now your scorn had been your
" wonder ; happy had that man been that could have dressed
" a sermon in his grave and weighty sentences or his study
" with his picture." If Hall was in the Tower when this was
written, there may have been a motive for the eulogy, as well
as for the following respectful reference to the Parliament in
an earlier part of the pamphlet : " The sun looks not on a
" braver, nobler Convocation than is that of King, Peers and
" Commons, whose equal justice and wise moderation shall
" eternally triumph, in that they have hitherto deferred to do
" what the sour exorbitancies on one hand and eager solicita-
" tions on the other, not permitting them to consult with
" reason, would have prompted them to." These words are
probably Hall's own. They seem to imply that the Bishops
Ejection Bill had not yet been passed by the Peers and the
King ; and, if so, the pamphlet, though bearing to be printed
in 1 6 4 2 , must have been written before February 1641-2. If
written after the 14th of that month, when the King's consent
to the Exclusion Bill was given, the words indicate a singular
abatement of Hall's courage.
For personal reasons, as well as from regard to his Smec-
tymnuan friends and their cause, Milton felt himself bound
to answer the pamphlet of Hall and his son. Accordingly,
shortly after its appearance — probably in March or April 1642
— there came forth what we will call No. 8 in the Smectym-
nuan series, or the fifth of Milton's own pamphlets on the
Church Question. It bore this title : " An Apology against a
Pamphlet call'd A Modest Confutation of the Animadversions
of the Remonstrant against Smectymnuus : London, Printed ~by
E. Gr. for John Rothwell, and are to be sold at the Signe of the
Sunne in Paul's Churchyard, 1642" Here Milton, it will be
1 In a copy of the pamphlet in the Prentices of London ; which fixes the
British Museum (E. !£) the words « By **ft £f *** Publication as after Feb. 4
v 54 1641-2. On the other hand, there are
Mr. Milton : Ex dono Autlioris " are such allusions to the exclusion of
written on the title-page, by a contem- Bishops from Parliament as an event
porary hand, — which, however, is not only just accomplished, or in the act of
Milton's own. The pamphlet contains being accomplished, that, though the
allusions to the numerous Anti-Episco- pamphlet is dated 1642, it inmy have been
pal Petitions to Parliament, — including in print before the formal commence-
the Petitions of the Women and the ment of that year, i.e. before March 25.
1642.] ATTACK ON MILTON BY THE HALLS. 399
observed, relapses, as the state of the case required, into the
anonymous; but his publisher is the same "Rothwell" who
had published his last, or acknowledged, pamphlet, and not
the " Underbill " who had published his first three pamphlets,
including the Animadversions.
The pamphlet consists of 55 pages of close type, small
quarto. The arrangement accords formally with that of the
pamphlet to which it is an answer. In other words, there
are introductory observations, followed by twelve sections of
text, in reply to the twelve sections of the other side. But the
matter is so mixed throughout that it will be best here not to
follow the numerical order, but rather to mass the substance
of what Milton says under the three heads of Self-Defence
against the Aspersions on his Character, Fartlier Attacks on
Hall, and Farther Expressions of Opinion on the Church
question. Milton, it ought to be premised, distinctly assumes,
ad a fact of which he had evidence satisfactory to himself,
that his antagonists were Hall and his son ; and one can see
him, as he writes, regarding the father as the principal
throughout, and the son as only a subordinate. He also
states that he had been " credibly informed " that Hall hud
been making private inquiries about him.
Milton begins calmly and gravely with a repetition of his
reasons for engaging in the Church controversy. It was a
time when no Englishman ought to stand neutral ; and, in
his case, the consciousness of " gifts of God's imparting " and
of " almost a whole youth " spent in " wearisome labours and
studious watchings " acquitted him of presumption. There-
fore it was that he had " not doubted to single forth, more
than once, such of them as were thought the chief and most
nominated opposers on the other side, whom no man else
undertook." Especially he had felt himself called upon to
come to the aid of his reverend friends, the Smectymnuans,
against the Remonstrant. " I had no fear," he says, " but
" that the authors of Smectyinnuus, to all the show of solidity
" which the Remonstrant could bring, were prepared both
" with skill and purpose to return a sufficing answer, and
" were able enough to lay the dust and pudder in antiquity
400 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" which he and his, out of stratagem, are wont to raise ; but,
" when I saw his weak arguments headed with sharp taunts,
" and that his design was, if he could not confute them, at
" least with quips and snapping adagies to vapour them out, —
" which they, bent only upon the business, were minded to let
" pass, — by how much more I saw them taking little thought
" for their own injuries, I must confess I took it as my part
" the less to endure that my respected friends, through their
" own unnecessary patience, should thus lie at the mercy of
" a coy, Hurting style, to be girded with frumps and curtal
" gibes by one who makes sentences by the statute, as if all
" above three inches long were confiscate." 3 Moreover, it
had been his desire, in the service of his cause, to disabuse
certain people of " the conceit that all who are not Prelatical
are gross-headed, thick-witted, illiterate, shallow," as if
" nothing but Episcopacy could teach men to speak good
English." But, in becoming a controversialist, he had, of
course, not expected to escape obloquy. And it had come
upon him. It had come upon him, however, fortunately in
such a shape that there was something almost ludicrous in
its inappropriateness. His friends, indeed, were already con-
gratulating him on this. With so many forms of calumny
possible, why had Hall and his son made such a blunder as
to attack Milton on the ground of his morals ? Perhaps,
however, Hall had his motive in choosing this style of attack.
To those who knew Milton it might seem absurd ; but there
was a wider world where he was not known, and where Hall's
pamphlet might be read.
" I must be thought," says Milton, " if this libeller can find
" belief, after an inordinate and riotous youth spent at the
" University, to have been at length vomited out thence." He
thanks the libeller for this as a " commodious lie." It is
commodious, inasmuch as it gives him (Milton) an oppor-
tunity of acknowledging publicly the quite extraordinary
1 In other places Milton ridicules our modern notion of prose style and
Hall's affection for short "tizzical," or the older notion that Milton here, in a
asthmatic, sentences, but nowhere so sentence about "three inches long"
characteristically as here. It is a itself, should laugh at an author for
revelation of the difference between always keeping within that length.
1642.] MILTON'S FIFTH PAMI-HLKT. 401
" favour and respect " which he had experienced from the
authorities of his College and others during his student-life
at Cambridge. It had been much against the will of the
Fellows of Christ's College that he had not remained among
them permanently ; since his leaving the College, the letters
of " kindness and loving respect " he had received from them
had been numerous l ; and, though he must admit that he
had never, even in his youthful years, " greatly admired " the
system at Cambridge, and now, in these her days of more
ostentatious Prelacy, much less, yet there were still there
" ingenuous and friendly men " to whom he wished the best
and happiest things that friends in absence could wisli one
another. To these, and to the recollections of all his coevals
at Cambridge, he could appeal for any testimony that might
be required as to his conduct and his reputation during his
University career. But the libeller, it seemed, was not con-
tent to stop at the University. He followed him to London,
tracing him to a " suburb sink " there, where he and the
Plague were well-matched associates. " A suburb sink !" we
can hear Milton saying to himself : " has Hall or his son
taken the trouble to walk all the way down to Aldersgate
here, to peep up the entry where I live, and so have an exact
notion of my whereabouts ? There has been plague in the
neighbourhood, certainly ; and I hope Jane Yates had my
door-step tidy for the visit." Thus we can imagine Milton
thinking; but in his pamphlet he contents himself with
resenting Hall's impertinent prying into such matters at all.
He calls him mildly a " rude scavenger," and tells him he has
a worse plague than the ordinary one in his own " middle
i On tho faith of this statement of left, but since then a Fellow? Chappell,
Milton, may we not reckon anion^ his Milton's first tutor at Christ's, is, I
( 'aniMridge correspondents since ho had fear, out of the question, both from the
left the University these: Dr. Thomas nature of Milton's connexion with him
Ifciinhrigge, still Master of Christ's ; there and from his subsequent career
the gooa Joseph Meade, till his death as a Laudian and Irish bishop. We
>; Edward Kin-' (Lyrida-), till shall find proof, indeed, that Chapi»oll
his death in 1637 ; the Rev. Nathaniel never forgot his auarrel with his old
Tovey, the tutor of Milton and of his pupil, and spoke ill of him. I have an
brother Christopher at Christ's, and impression that a good deal of tho
whoremainedtheretillhisapiM.intm. iit ><andal aln.ut Milton's student life,
to the Rectory of Lottorwora in l''»57 ; with which his Prolatir opponents now
and perhaps also Henry More, only an began to assail him, cam.
undergraduate of Christ'* when Milton from
VOL. II - I'
402 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
entrail," i.e. heart, or spleen. After which bit of elegance he
proceeds to work— — " Where my morning haunts are he
wisses not," the libeller had said. Milton will give him the
required information. " These morning haunts are where
" they should be, — at home : not sleeping, or concocting the
" surfeits of an irregular feast, but up and stirring, — in winter
" often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labour or to
" devotion, in summer as oft with the bird that first rouses,
" or not much tardier, — to read good authors, or cause them to
" be read, till the attention be weary or memory have his full
" fraught : then, with useful and generous labours preserving
" the body's health and hardiness, to render lightsome, clear,
" and not lumpish obedience to the mind, to the cause of Ee-
" ligion and our Country's Liberty, when it shall require firm
" hearts in sound bodies to stand and cover their stations,
" rather than see the ruin of our Protestantism and the en-
" forcement of a slavish life."- —This is interesting. Milton,
it seems, has for some time been practising drill. The City
Artillery Ground was near ; where, under Skippon and other
officers of the Train-Bands, one might have daily exercise in
the pike and other weapons, and in marching. Did Milton,
among others, make a habit of going there of mornings ? Of
this more hereafter ; meanwhile let us follow him into his
afternoons.— —These, according to his antagonist, he spent
in playhouses and brothels ; else how could he have attained
his familiarity with old cloaks, false beards, night-walkers, salt-
lotion, and other such terms of Corinthian slang ? And, pray,
Milton cleverly retorts, how does my antagonist himself know
the meaning of such terms, if they can be known only in one
way ? But, really, one might acquire such learning without
taking all that trouble. Was there not, for example, a little
book, called Mundus Alter et Idem, written by the Right Rev.
Father in God Joseph Hall, lately Bishop of Exeter, and
now Bishop of Norwich, and which was, for its size, quite an
encyclopaedia of ribaldry and coarse ideas ? Might not a
poor student have chanced to look into that volume, and have
enriched his vocabulary accordingly ? Or, even without that,
had not the Universities, under the sway of Prelacy, suffi-
1642.] MILTON'S FIFTH PAMPHLET. 403
ciently provided for the instruction even of undergraduates
in the language and business of playhouses and bordelloes ?
Had not he, Milton, as an undergraduate at Cambridge, seen
University dons, who were then students of Divinity, and
who had since then risen to high places in the Church, acting
in obscene Latin and English plays in the College halls, and
" writhing their clergy-limbs " most abominably ?
For a while Milton proceeds in this strain of fierce banter,
but only by way of prelude to an autobiographic passage of
noble seriousness, which is the gem of the whole pamphlet.
It is that passage already referred to by us long ago, and
partly quoted from,1 where, reviewing the whole course of his
youthful life and studies, he expounds, in terms so memor-
able, the principle on which, from the first, he had been
careful to build up his character. Let the reader here again
remember that principle. It is impossible to remember it
too often in a Life of Milton ;.for it is, without exception, the
profoundest thing that Milton has told us about himself, and
the key to all that we now call Miltonic. It is hinted, or
expounded, in not a few of Milton's writings, but perhaps
nowhere with such roundness and precision as in the passage
now under notice. It is the principle of the inevitable con-
gruity of the fruit with the tree, of the works that a man
may do in the world with that man's personality or secret
and intrinsic self. More expressly, it is the principle of the
necessity of moral purity, of a conscience void of offence, to
a life of the highest endeavour or the highest achieve-
ment in any walk whatsoever. It is the principle that
courage or magnanimity presupposes self-respect, and that
consequently he who would lay up for his mature years
a store of this great virtue of courage or magnanimity,
who would look all men in the face unabashed, and dare
nil things according to the highest conceptions of his
reason, must begin by preserving from his earliest youth,
and in the most secret sessions of his memory of himself,
a spotless title to self-respect. Applied to literature, it is
the principle that he who looks forward to a career of
» V,,l. F. ,,|,. 814—316.
404 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
great things in that kind must, if he would not be frustrate
of his hope, make his own life a true poem first of all. On
this principle, and not on any modification of the opposite
theory so much in favour, — the " wild oats theory," as we
ventured to call it, — Milton avows that his own life had been
consciously framed. It had dawned upon him at an early
date, and it had gradually acquired strength and clearness, so
that, amid his wide, and even indiscriminate, readings in
books, it had affected his critical judgments, and determined
his literary likings and dislikings. His natural niceness or
fastidiousness of disposition, not to speak of his Christian
training, would, he believed, have kept him free from the
grosser forms of vice, even without the aid of this principle ;
but, with this principle co-operating, his success had been easy.
Up to the moment at which he was then writing, he chal-
lenged all inquiry, however rigorous, into his past life, in
those respects in which the libeller had at random assailed it ;
and, if he should be found to have swerved from the principle
he had now avowed, let him be branded as a liar ! Nay,
might there not be a subtle providence in the accident that
had led thus to this declaration about himself and this ex-
position of a principle in his private philosophy ? There was
probably a considerable extent of life yet before him, in
which he should still be in antagonism to men high in the
world's esteem and should be pursued by hostile criticism.
He had willingly, in the prospect of such a life, given his
enemies an advantage. He had registered an affirmation
which, if at any time they could disprove it, or prove that he
had begun to be unfaithful to it, they could quote to his
confusion.
Of Milton's continued hostility to Hall throughout the
pamphlet we have already had instances. But, indeed, in
every page Hall is gored and mangled. His unfortunate
Mundus Alter et Idem is again and again hoisted up, and
his Satires quoted for ridicule. " What frigid conceits are
these ! " he exclaims, after one quotation from Hall's Sixth
Satire, Book IT., containing the phrase " Bridge Street in
Heaven " and the like. And this is the man who, with such
1642.] MILTON'S FIFTH PAMPHLET. 405
models of true Satire before him as were to be found in the
Latin and Italian writers, and in the English Vision and deed
of Tiers Plowman, claimed to be the prototype of English
satirists ! Published sermons of Hall are also referred to and
sneered at ; and, with elaborate irony, it is professed (and, I
think, truly) that no one who knew Hall's style, and his
uncandid habit of always begging a verdict in the very word-
ing of his title-pages, could have doubted that a pamphlet
entitling itself " A modest Confutation of a slanderous and
scurrilous Libel, &c.," was written by Hall or under his eye.
But perhaps what Hall and his son must have disliked most
at the moment were Milton's comments on the fair words
they had thought it politic, in their straits, to use respecting
the Parliament Quoting their phrase, " The sun looks not
upon a braver, nobler Convocation than is that of King, Peers,
and Commons," Milton bids the reader observe the wonderful
" decorum " of the expressions. Did this " cloistered lubber,"
this " losel Bachelor of Art " (he surely means the son here),
know no better than " to term the high and sovran Court of
Parliament a Convocation " ? Was this the flower of all those
voluminous papers (of the father's), the best of which were
predestined to no better end than to be winding-sheets in
Lent for pilchards ? And then, to show how an eulogium on
Parliament slwidd be written, Milton writes one himself.
The new expressions which the pamphlet contains of
Milton's opinions on points of the Church question will be
best exhibited in the form of extracts, with headings prefixed
to them, as before : —
Praise of the Parliament. — " The most of them being either of
ancient and high nobility, or at least of known and well-reputed
ancestry, — which is a great advantage towards virtue one way,
but, in respect of wealth, ease, and flattery, which accompanies
a nice and tender education, is as much a hindrance another way,
— the good which lay before them they took, in imitating their
worthiest progenitors, and the evil which assaulted their younger
years by the temptation of riches, high birth, and that usual 1 •ring-
ing-lip, perhaps too favourable or too remiss, through the strength
of an inbred goodness, and with the help of divine grace, they nobly
406 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
overcame. Yet had they a greater danger to cope with ; for, being
trained up in the knowledge of learning, and sent to those places
which were intended to be the seed-plots of piety and the liberal
arts, but were become the nurseries of superstition and empty
speculation, as they were prosperous against those vices which grow
upon youth out of idleness and superfluity, so were they happy in
working off the harms of their abused studies and labours, cor-
recting by the clearness of their own judgment the errors of their
mis-instruction, and were, as David was, wiser than their teachers.
. . . Thus, in the midst of all disadvantages and disrespects (some
also at last not without imprisonment and open disgraces in the
cause of their country), having given proof of themselves to be
better made and framed by nature to the love and practice of virtue
than others under the holiest precepts and best examples have
been headstrong and prone to vice, and having, in all the trials of
a firm-ingrafted honesty, not oftener buckled in the contest than
given every opposition the foil, this moreover was added by
Heaven, as an ornament and happiness to their virtue, that it
should be neither obscure in the opinion of men, nor eclipsed for
want of matter equal to illustrate itself, — God and man consenting
in joint approbation to choose them out as worthiest above others
to be both the great reformers of the Church and the restorers of
the Commonwealth."
Illiteracy of the Clergy. — " This is undoubted, — that, if any
carpenter, smith, or weaver, were such a bungler in his trade as
the greater number of them are in their profession, he would
starve for any custom. And, should he exercise his manufacture
as little as they do their talents, he would forget his art : and,
should he mistake his tools as they do theirs, he would mar all the
work he took in hand. How few of them that know how to write
or speak in a pure style, much less to distinguish the ideas and
various kinds of style ! In Latin, barbarous and oft not without
solecisms, declaiming in rugged and miscellaneous gear blown
together by the four winds, and in their choice preferring the gay
rankness of Apuleius, Arnobius, or any modern fustianist, before
the native Latinisms of Cicero. In the Greek tongue most of
them unlettered, or unentered to any sound proficiency in those
Attic masters of moral wisdom and eloquence. In the Hebrew
text, which is so necessary to be understood, except it be some few
of them, their lips are utterly uncircumcised. No less are they out
of the way in Philosophy, — pestering their heads with the sapless
1642.] MILTON'S FIFTH PAMPHLET. 407
dotages of old Paris and Salamanca. And, that which is the main
point, in their sermons affecting the comments and postils of Friars
and Jesuits, but scorning and slighting the Reformed writers."
The /;//•///.</< Liturgy. — "Inconveniences and dangers follow the
compelling of [any] set forms ; but that the toleration of the
English Liturgy now in use is more dangerous than the compelling
of any other which the Reformed Churches use, these reasons
following may evince: — To contend that it is fantastical, if not
senseless, in some places, were a copious argument, especially in
the Responsaries. For such alternations as are there used must
be by several persons ; but the Minister and the People cannot so
sever their interests as to sustain several persons, he being only
the mouth of the whole body which he presents. And, if the
people pray, he being silent, or they ask one thing and he another,
it either changes the property, making the priest the people and
the people the priest by turns, or else makes two persons and two
bodies representative where there should be but one, — which, if it
be nought else, must needs be a strange quaintness in ordinary
prayer. The like or worse may be said of the Litany, wherein
neither priest nor people speak any entire sense of themselves
throughout the whole I-know-not-what-to-name-it ; only, by the
timely contribution of their parted stakes, closing up as it were the
schism of a sliced prayer, they pray not in vain, for by this means
they keep life between them in a piece of gasping sense, and keep
down the sauciness of a continual rebounding nonsense. And
hence it is that, as it hath been far from the imitation of any
warranted prayer, so we all know it hath been obvious to be the
pattern of many a jig. And he who hath but read in good books
of devotion and no more cannot be so either of ear or judgment
un}»nutisr(l to distinguish what is grave, pathetical, devout, and
what not, but will presently perceive this Liturgy all over in con-
ception lean and dry, of affections empty and unmoving, of passion
or any highth whereto the soul might soar upon the wings of zeal
destitute and barren ; besides errors, tautologies, impertinences, —
as those thanks in the Woman's Churching for her delivery from
sunburning and moonblasting, as if she had been travailing not
in In .T bed, but in the deserts of Arabia. So that, while some
men cease not to admire the incomparable frame of our Liturgy, I
cannot but admire as fast what they think is become of judgment
;ui'l taste in other men that they can hope to be heard without
laughter."
408 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Of one passage of personal allusion in the pamphlet we
have taken no notice hitherto. It is Milton's reply to the
suggestion that he was looking after a rich widow, and had
written his former pamphlet, and especially had inserted in
it the extraordinary prayer in the name of the three king-
doms, in order to gain this widow's affections. In part of
his reply Milton is properly facetious over this imputation,
observing that she must be a strange kind of widow that was
to be won in this fashion, and he but a rustic kind of wooer,
far less deft at love-making than the Remonstrant, on the
evidence of his Satires, had been in his youth, if he had no
other fashion. But it is the graver part of his reply that is
the most interesting. It is as follows : —
"He proceeds, and the familiar [i.e. Hall's informant respecting
Milton] belike informs him, that a rich widow, or a lecture, or both,
tvould content me. Whereby I perceive him to be more ignorant
in his art of divining than any gypsy. For this I cannot omit,
without ingratitude to that Providence above who hath ever bred
me up in plenty, although my life hath not been inexpensive in
learning and voyaging about : — So long as it shall please Him to
lend me what He hath hitherto thought good (which is enough to
serve me in all honest and liberal occasions, and something over
besides), I were unthankful to that highest bounty if I should
make myself so poor as to solicit needily any such kind of * rich
hopes ' as this fortune-teller dreams of. And, that he may farther
know how his astrology is wide all the houses of the Heaven in
spelling marriages, I care not if I tell him this much profestly,
though it be to the losing of my ' rich hopes,' as he calls them, —
that I think with them who, both in prudence and elegance of
spirit, would chose a virgin of mean fortunes, honestly bred,
before the wealthiest widow."
What have we here ? Surely nothing less, if we choose so
to construe it, than a marriage-advertisement. Ho ! all ye
virgins of England (widows need not apply), here is an op-
portunity such as seldom occurs : A bachelor, unattached ;
age, thirty-three years and three or four months ; height,
middle or a little less ; personal appearance, unusually hand-
1642.] MILTON'S FIFTH PAMPHLET. 409
some, with fair complexion and light aubum hair ; circum-
stances, independent ; tastes, intellectual and decidedly
musical ; principles, Root-and- Branch ! Was there already
any young maiden in whose bosom, had such an advertise-
ment come in her way, it would have raised a conscious
flutter ? If so, did she live near Oxford ?
CHAPTEE VIII.
DRIFTING INTO WAR I CHOOSING OF SIDES : RAISING OF THE
KING'S STANDARD.
THE King's absence from Whitehall, inconvenient as it
had been from the first, had become doubly inconvenient
since he had gone into the north and established himself at
York (March 19, 1641-2). It had become inconvenient
on the supposition that the national business was still to be
carried on constitutionally by King, Lords, and Commons.
On another supposition it was even convenient. If the
King's removal to York was to be interpreted as a per-
manent rupture between him and Parliament, then the
separation of the opposed elements, as by their aggregation
respectively towards two poles, distant two hundred miles
from each other, was convenient for both parties.
For a considerable time it was the policy of both parties to
proceed publicly as if the separation were only temporary.
Messages went and came between Westminster and York ;
deputations and commissioners went and came ; elaborate
declarations and papers of propositions towards a settlement
of differences went and came : to get the King to return to
Whitehall seemed the one anxiety of Parliament. All in
vain. On the great question of the power of the Militia the
King would not yield a jot, and on this question the Parlia-
ment remained resolute. Kept apart, accordingly, by this
dispute, the two parties had to confine themselves to such
actions as were competent to each without the aid of the
other, or to declarations of mutual hostility.1
1 Clarendon devotes a large space, a negotiations between the King and the
whole Book of his History (Book V.), Parliament during the five months
to the narration of the proceedings and of their separation before the out-
I'.IJ.J DRIFTING INTO WAK. 411
Among the King's actions may be mentioned the appoint-
ment of several new Bishops, to till the vacancies left after
the last batch of promotions and appointments in the previous
November and December.1 As Williains's successor in the
see of Lincoln, there had been appointed (Jan. 5, 1641-2)
Dr. Thomas Wiiiniffe, Dean of St. Paul's ; and, after the
King's departure from Whitehall, but before his arrival at
York, there had been two new appointments. Dr. Henry
King, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, was appointed to the
see of Chichester, vacant by the promotion of Duppa ; and
Archbishop Usher was nominated (Feb. 16, 1641-2) to the
see of Chester, vacant by the death of the Puritan bishop
Barnabas Potter, — the arrangement being that Usher should
meanwhile hold this English bishopric in cwnmtndam along
with his Irish Primacy. Appointments made after the
King's removal to York were that of Dr. Ralph Brownrigg,
Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, to Hall's vacant
bishopric of Exeter (March 31,1642), and that of Dr. Thomas
Westfield, Archdeacon of St. Albans, to the bishopric
of Bristol in succession to Skinner (June 26). Against
these appointments the Parliament seem not to have cared
to make any protest. They were satisfied, in the inean-
time, with that blow against Episcopacy, by the Bishops
Exclusion Bill, which had rendered Bishops comparatively
unimportant personages in the realm.
It was different, however, when the chance of the King's
creating new lay-peers came to be considered. In contempla-
tion of such an exercise of the King's power, the Lords passed
(May 14) a Bill to restrain any new peers that the King
illicit create in existing circumstances from sitting in their
House : six Lords dissenting.2 Then, again, when the King
proposed, by way of threat, to go into Ireland and assume
the command against the Rebels there, Parliament pronounced
its veto on any such step. And so backwards and forwards,
break of the war. This is in fart of real interest for »« in that period of
a VMt pamohlot, written with all (.'In- mere negotiation and claUrat.
rondon M skill, to secure the nympathioa pleading are few.
of hw rondure for thu King* ride i o^ „„,» __ ««vt «on
throughout the sequel. It i. ama-terly See a««, pp. 324, 826.
pamphlet for iU purpose ; but the fact* * Lord* Journal*,
412 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
move and countermove, in a great variety of particulars. The
most resolute action of each party was always when the other
issued an order of a military kind, or attempted to gain
military strength. The King, with a body of horse, having
tried to get admittance into Hull, where there was a large
magazine of arms and ammunition, and having proclaimed
the governor, Sir John Hotham, a traitor for refusing him
admission (April 23), Parliament instantly approved of
Hotham's firmness, and had the arms and ammunition brought
to London. The King doing his best to secure the Yorkshire
gentry to his side, and even forbidding them to obey any
summons of Parliament, the Parliament sent commissioners
into Yorkshire.1 The Parliament, on the other hand, having
issued orders that their Militia Ordinance of the previous
February should be carried out in counties, the King declared
the action illegal. The King, again, meditating a proclama-
tion for the removal of the " Term " or Law-Courts to York,
the Parliament declared this illegal. It is impossible, in all
this, not to notice the superior vigilance of the Parliament,
prompted by their conviction that war was coming. This is
the explanation of several very severe proceedings of theirs
in the months of April, May, and June. They suppressed,
for example, a pro-Episcopacy agitation in Kent, got up by
Sir Edward Deering since his ejection from the Commons
(Feb. 2) for a breach of privilege in publishing his speeches ;
and they impeached Lord Mayor Gurney, so as to get him
out of the chief magistracy of the city and secure that import-
ant post for the trusty Alderman Pennington. Where public
necessity did not oblige severity, they were lenient enough.
Thus, on the petition of the twelve imprisoned Bishops, they
were released and allowed to go at large upon bail (May 5).
In the case of Williams there was the farther condition
that he should not go to his northern Archbishopric while
the King was there.
The phenomenon of most significance through all this was
the gradual polarization of all the conspicuous Eoyalists, atom
by atom or in twos and threes at a time, towards the King
i Parl. Hist. II. 1222.
l»Jrj.] DRIFTING INTO WAR : CHOOSING OF SIDES. 413
at York. When the King had gone to York there were with
him, or near him, not only the Prince of Wales and the Duke
of York (the younger children were still at Whitehall or
Windsor), but also a few of his leading lords and counsellors,
such as the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, the
Earl of Newcastle, and Mr. Secretary Nicholas. These, with
the northern lords and gentry that flocked in, formed a toler-
able semblance of a Court. But it only waited the King's
bidding to swell this Court by accessions from Parliament
itself, and from the whole south of England. For a while it
was thought best that most of the King's friends in Parlia-
ment should remain in their places. The King's first orders
to join him were addressed, therefore, rather to those peers
of his Council of whose attachment to him he was least sure.
The Earls of Essex, Holland, and Salisbury, and Lord Savile,
were first summoned ; and, on their refusing to comply, Essex
was required to resign his office of Lord Chamberlain, and
Holland his various offices. Another experiment in which
Charles was more successful was in the case of the Lord
Keeper Littleton. Dissatisfied with some parts of this peer's
recent conduct, the King had some intention of taking the
Great Seal from him. But Hyde, knowing Littleton better,
reasoned with his Majesty in private letters, and undertook
that Littleton would be found loyal. Accordingly, after some
conferences between Hyde and Littleton, the great seal was
sent by sure hands to York, and Littleton himself took the
desperate step of following in person. He chose the interval
between a Saturday and a Monday (May 21 — 23) for his
flight. Hyde himself, who had hitherto stayed on, with his
friends Falkland and Colepepper, that they three might
watch the King's interest in the Commons, did not dare
to remain in London after the Lord Keeper. His close
correspondence with the King was already more than sus-
pected, he says, and his connexion with the Lord Keeper's
flight cuuld not be concealed. So, actually before the Lord
Keeper had set out, Hyde was half-way to York by a different
route. He stayed first near Oxford, where he picked up his
fri.-nd Mr. Chillingworth. Tin- two went tin-nee by byu-rouds
414 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
to Lutterworth in Leicestershire, where they rested a night
with a friend of Mr. Chillingworth, " who was parson of the
parish/'^no other, in fact, than our old friend Mr. Nathaniel
Tovey, Milton's second tutor at Cambridge. Setting out
from Tovey's, the two reached York almost as soon as the
Lord Keeper. But it was the Lord Keeper's flight, with
the removal of the great seal and the vacating of the wool-
sack in the House of Lords, that caused the most profound
sensation in London. Spreading a kind of awe among the
weaker-minded even of the Parliamentarian party, it became
for the King's friends generally the signal that they too
should be gone. Accordingly, Falkland and Colepepper soon
followed Hyde, and the ranks of Parliament became day by
day thinner.
Some curious statistics, showing the gradual shedding-off
of the members of both Houses from their places in Parlia-
ment as the moment of Civil War approached, are to be culled
from the Lords and Commons Journals. — —In the Peers the
diminution of attendance was most rapid. Thus, on a call of
that House on the 21st of April, sixty-one peers were found
to be absent. On that occasion, however, some of the most
earnest of the Parliamentarians were among the absentees,
being away on Parliament business. Before the end of the
following month, however, the Lord Keeper's flight having
occasioned a more exact census, it was found that thirty-two
peers were with the King at York ; which, as there were also
thirteen absentees from reasons of old age, minority, &c., and
as other peers were non-effective as being Eoman Catholics
or in foreign parts, left only forty-two peers then in effective
attendance. Messages were sent after the runaways to York,
and especially after nine of them, who were summoned to
return as delinquents. All to no effect. Even the ranks
of the effective residue, — who, having no Lord Keeper among
them, had now to appoint a Speaker from day to day, — were
gradually thinned by fresh secessions, till, before the end of
June, it was a full House if thirty were present. And so,
with some differences, in the Commons. In that House the
divisions through the months of April and May show an
1642.] DRIFTING INTO WAR: CHOOSING OF SIDES. 415
average attendance of about 200 or somewhat less. This was
not a large number in proportion to the whole ; but it was as
large as there had perhaps generally been since Parliament
had first settled to its work and the ornamentals had dropped
off. Not very many of the absentees were yet with the King
at York ; for, as we have seen, it was not till the end of May
that even Hyde, Falkland, and Colepepper went thither. Their
departure, and the knowledge that the King by private letters
was inviting others of the Commons to follow them, led to an
order of the House that all members should be punctually in
their places on the 16th of June, under a penalty of 100/.
each, to go to the fund for Ireland. This whip had interesting
results. On the appointed day, forty-five members were
marked as absent, all of whom had presumably gone to the
Kinjj. Among them, besides Hyde, Falkland, and Colepepper,
we may note Sir Ralph Hopton, Sir John Pakington, Mr.
Endymion Porter, Mr. John Ashburnham, and Mr. Philip War-
wick. Either in this list there were not counted the absent
members who had valid excuses, or else a large number must
have come into the House for form's sake and gone off imme-
diately after the roll was called ; for, in three divisions which
occurred on that day, all on this very business of the absentees,
the numbers were 142 against 122, 147 against 91, and 100
against 79. This would show the maximum of effective or
voting attendance that day to have been 264 ; which, if added
to the 45 culpable absentees, would account for only 305
members out of an original House of 500. But, except on
very great occasions, about 300 had always been thought a
full House, so that, in the middle of June, the secession was
not so large as might have been expected. The loss, however,
probably increased as June passed into July, for in this latter
month the divisions show most frequently an attendance of but
a hundred or little more. By that time, however, the most
zealous Parliamentarians had work out of I 'ail lament, and
may have been coming and going between town and country.
Tin- largest vote I have found in the Commons after Jinn- is
on Saturday tin- !>tli of. Inly; on which day, on a proposition
for raising 10,000 Volunteers for the country's defence (i.e, for
416 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the Parliament in the approaching Civil War), there divided
Teas 12 5 against Noes 45. There were thus 170 present.
The Tellers for the Yeas were Mr. Denzil Holies and Sir John
Evelyn, for the Noes Sir John Strange ways and Mr. Selden.
What strikes one perhaps most, in looking over the Commons
Journals at this time, is the frequency with which Cromwell's
name appears. The member for Cambridge was now a man
much looked to.1
Which way was Scotland to go ? This was a question of
some concern ; and we see both King and Parliament bidding
for the help of the little kingdom. On the King's side, there
was the plea that he had given the Scots, at all events, all
they wanted, and left them, at his recent visit, comfortable in
the enjoyment of their Presbyterianism and of a Government
to match. Were they not bound then to the King by grati-
tude ? On the other hand, there was the plea of the good
understanding that had recently existed between the English
Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters, the many mutual
tokens of respect that had passed between them, and the
real service that the Parliament had done the Scots in
securing them the fruits of their Revolution. Were the
Scots to forget all this ? Moreover, what was the English
Parliament struggling for but the overthrow in England of
that system of Prelacy which had been overthrown in Scot-
land ? Would the Scots refuse their sympathy in the struggle,
and so abandon that idea for which they had so often argued
on paper, and which had gained so much ground among the
English already, the idea of a uniformity of Religion and
Church Discipline between the two kingdoms ?
Since the King's visit, there had been no meeting of the
Scottish Parliament to express the national opinion. This,
however, mattered the less because the Scottish Privy Council,
with Lord Chancellor Loudoun as its nominal head, but with
the Marquis of Argyle and Sir Archibald Johnstone of
1 Authorities for statements in this 1212, 1270-74, 1296-7, 1365-6, 1373,
and the preceding paragraph are Cla- 1409 ; and the Lords and Commons
rendon (Hist. p. 227 et seq., and Life, Journals over the time and for the
p. 948 et seq.); Parl. Hist. II. 1172, days referred to.
1642.] TENDENCY OF THE SCOTS. 417
Warriston as the leading spirits, had been able to keep t lu-
nation in the straight course. It had not been an easy task.
With peace and prosperity to the Scots, there had come, as
usual, personal jealousies among the leading nobles, and
numerous little questions of animosity among the clergy
and the town -councils. Then there were the schemes of
Montrose, Napier, and the other malcontents. Nevertheless,
and chiefly through the care of Argyle, the policy of the
Scottish Government had been all along one of friendship
with the English Parliament. Commissioners had been sent
up to London on the business of the Irish Rebellion ; and these
Commissioners, — among whom were the Earls of Lothian and
Lindsay, and Sir Archibald Johnstone, — had become organs
of communication with the English Parliament on affairs
in general. Through them, as early as January 1641-2, the
Scottish Privy Council had offered to mediate between the
King and the Parliament ; and, these offers failing, the Scottish
Privy Council had joined with the Parliament in opposing the
King's proposal to go to Ireland in person, and had helped the
Parliament through their immediate Irish difficulty by lending
thema force of 6,000 Scots, under Leslie's subordinate, General
Monro. For these and other services the Parliament had
thanked the Scottish Council in most cordial letters. But, the
K iii'_r remonstrating, Loudoun himself had gone to York to con-
tinue the so-called mediation. This not being what was wanted,
he had been sent back into Scotland to call a special meeting
of I'rivy Council for the 25th of May. In order that a
great effort might be made at this meeting to win a decision
for the King, the Earls of Roxburgh and Kinnoull, and other
Royalists of the Scottish Privy Council then in England, were
sent down to gather adherents and attend the meeting in force.
Johnstone of Warriston, however, who was thoroughly in
the confidence of the English Parliament, came express from
London to counteract these " Banders " ; and this he did so
effectually that, though the " Banders" made a great show at
the mooting, tln-y could accomplish nothing. The Duke of
Ha mil ton afterwards came to Scotland, apparently as agent
for the King, but really, as those who knew him best supposed,
VOL. II 2 E
418 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
to " eschew drowning " in the meeting of two contrary tides.
In short, all that Charles could at this time extract out of Scot-
land for his help against the Parliament was the contribution
of a few valuable volunteer recruits in the shape of trained
army-men fit to be officers. Among them was Colonel Sir
John Cochrane, brother of Sir William Cochrane of Cowdon,
the ancestor of the Dundonald family.
Even had the Scottish Privy Council refused the policy of
sympathy with the English Parliament urged by Argyle and
Johnstons of Warriston, the temper of the Scottish people
would have compelled such a policy. It was the flocking
to Edinburgh of crowds from Fife and the Lothians on the
day of the Privy Council meeting that had protected Argyle
and Johns tone, and prevented the " Banders " from resorting
to force. And the same enthusiasm for the Parliamentary
cause in England was exhibited as strikingly and more
formally in the General Assembly of the Kirk, which met
at St. Andrews on the 27th of July and sat till the 6th of
August. In those ten days' sittings of the Assembly there
were present not only the representatives of the clergy from
all the shires, but also, as lay-elders, such noblemen and
Privy Councillors as Argyle, the Earls of Eglinton, Cassilis,
Glencairn, Lauderdale, and Wemyss, Lords Balcarres, Elcho,
Burleigh, Sinclair, and Maitland, and Johnstone of Warriston.
Not members of Assembly, but in attendance on his Majesty's
Commissioner, the Earl of Dunfermline, who sat enthroned
in it to represent Eoyalty, were the Lord Chancellor Loudoun,
the Duke of Hamilton, the Earls of Morton and Southesk,
Lord Tester, and others. The Moderator, or president,
was Mr. Eobert Douglas, minister of Kirkcaldy. But the
chief man in the Assembly, now as before, was, of course,
Alexander Henderson.
A weariness had begun of late to creep over this most
powerful man in the Scottish Israel. It was partly from
advancing age and incessant work, but partly also from
fatigue with the pettiness and impatience of the men around
him. Since the last Assembly he had been occupied, as much
as his parish-work and other distractions would permit, in
1642. J TENDENCY OF THE SCOTS. 419
considering the great business, committed to him by that
Assembly,1 of preparing a Confession of Faith, a Catechism,
a Directory for Worship, and a Form of Church Government,
such as, while they suited Scotland and agreed with her
recent Presbyterian Revolution, might be offered, with some
prospect of acceptance, to England. But, the more he had
i bought of the work, the more he had doubted his strength.
This appears, very creditably, in a letter of his to Baillie,
dated "Edinburgh, April 20, 1642." Baillie had sent Hen-
derson, for his approval, the manuscript of a little work
he meant to publish against Browuism, or Independency, and
at the same time had asked Henderson how he was advanc-
ing in his great labour. Henderson, in his letter, advises
Baillie to keep his little work back for some time, " because
much more is lately come to light on both sides in Holland
and England " than had yet found its way to Scotland. Then,
with reference to his own great labour, he says, " Although
" neither time nor weakness had hindered, I cannot think it
" expedient that any such thing, whether Confession of Faith,
" Direction for Worship, Form of Government, or Catechism
" less or more, should be agreed upon and authorised by our
" Kirk till we see what the Lord will do in England and
" Ireland, where I still wait for a Reformation and uniformity
" with us ; but this must be brought to pass by common con-
" sent, and we are not to conceive that they will embrace our
" Form, but a new Form must be set down for us all, and in
" my opinion some men set apart some time for that work ;
" and, although we should never come to this unity in
" religion and uniformity in worship, yet rny desire is to see
" what Form England will pitch upon before we publish
" ours." In other words, Henderson's broad judgment had
begun to be aware of elements in the English mind that
would probably not brook the control of any mere Scottish
form of Church discipline, nor stay within its limits.
It was in this temper, <•!' hopeful interest in what was
tfniiiLr "»» in Kir-ilaml, and desire to see the English Parliament
advancing freely in its own career of Church Reformation,
' See an#, p. 290.
420 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
that Henderson had come to the 'St. Andrews General
Assembly. In that Assembly, amid smaller and more local
business, including " an Act for restraining Witchcraft,"
the great business of the strife between the King and the
English Parliament naturally came up. It was, indeed, formally
forced upon the attention of the Assembly by his Majesty's
Letter of date July 23, presented by the Commissioner on
opening the Assembly, as well as by a Declaration addressed
to the Assembly by the English Parliament, arid by a Letter to
the Assembly, dated "London, July 22," from "some ministers
in England " (viz. the Smectymnuans and their adherents),
acknowledging past favours, and reiterating their conviction
that it was the desire of " the most godly and considerable
part " of the English ministers and people that Presby-
terian Government should be established in England. Vain
efforts were made by the King's Commissioner and his
assessors to extract from the Assembly some opinion dis-
tinctly in favour of the King. On the contrary, in a suppli-
cation (Aug. 3) to his Majesty, by way of answer to his
Majesty's letter, the Assembly venture to remind him of
his former promises for the furtherance of a uniformity of
Keligion and Church government between the two kingdoms.
In a letter of the same date to the English Parliament,
drawn up by Henderson, the Assembly, though still speaking
cautiously, intimated clearly enough on which side their
sympathies lay. " What hope can there be," they write, " of
" unity of religion, of one Confession of Faith, one Form of
" Worship, and one Catechism, till there be first one Form of
" Ecclesiastical Government ? Yea, what hope can the King-
" dom and Kirk of Scotland have of a firm and durable
" peace, till Prelacy, which hath been the main cause of
" their miseries and troubles, first and last, be plucked up,
" root and branch, as a plant which God hath not planted,
" and from which no better fruit can be expected than
" such sour grapes as this day set on edge the kingdom of
"England?"1
i Baillie, II. 1—56 ; and Acts of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland :
Assembly of 1642.
1642.] A1!MIN<; ON BOTH SIDES. 421
%
While the Scottish Assembly so wrote, the sword was
ulivudv half nut of the scabbard in England. As early as June
2 a ship had arrived on the North -Knijlish coast, bringing the
King arms and ammunition from Holland, purchased by the
sale of the crown-jewels which the Queen had taken abroad.
On the 22nd of the same month more than forty of the nobles
and others in attendance on the King at York had put down
their names for the numbers of armed horse they would
furnish respectively for his service.1 Requisitions in the
King's name were also out for supplies of money ; and the
two Universities, and the Colleges in each, were invited to
send in their plate.2 On the other hand, the Parliament had
not been more negligent. There had been contributions or
promises from all the chief Parliamentarian nobles and
others ; there was a large loan from the City ; and hundreds
of thousands, on a smaller scale, were willing to subscribe.
And already, through all the shires, the two opposed powers
were grappling and jostling with each other in raising levies.
On the King's side there were what were called Commissions
of Array, or powers granted to certain nobles and others by
name to raise troops for the King. On the side of Parlia-
ment, in addition to the Volunteering which had been going
on in many places (as, for example, in Cambridgeshire, where
Oliver Cromwell was forming a troop of Volunteer horse, and
in Suffolk, where I find a Mr. John Bright conspicuously busy
in the same kind of work),3 there was the Militia Ordinance,
1 MS. list in tho State Paper Office of "which wo promise to satisfy again.
date Juno 22,'1642. About 2, 000 horse "Givon at our Court at Bevorley, tho
in all are subscribed on that day, to "28th of July, 1642." There must
serve three months. At tho head of have been many such loans,
tho list is tho Prince of Wales, for 200 » Lords Journals, July 23, 1642. But
horse ; the Duke of Richmond, Lord many names of active promoters of
Coventry, and Lord Capol subscribe Volunteering for Parliament may be
100 each ; the Duke of Hamilton, the picked out of the Lords and Commons
Muniuis of Hertford, tho Earl of Dorset, Journals from July 6 onwards. In tho
the Earl of Devonshire, and tho Earl of State Paper Office I found a letter of
Bristol, 60 each ; under whom come tho date Aug. 16, 1642, from a Nohomiah
rest, for 50, 40, 30, or 20 each. Falk- Wharton to his " worthy and much
land and Colepopper subscribe 20 each, honoured friend Mr. Oaoigfj Willin^-
The lowest is Lord Grey of Kuthen, ham, marchant, at tho Golden Anchor
wh., -iibticribes 10 horse only. in St. Swithin's Lano," in which Whar-
1 1 - TO, from tho State Pajwr Office, is ton, then going about with Parliamen-
an interesting record of one loan to tho tarian recruits in tho noighlnnirhood of
* ' Charles R. We have received Uxbridge, gives some curious details of
i^o Jones, Esq., surveyor of our tho conduct of those recruit*. Thoir
44 works, fiOO pounds sterling in pieces, Colonel, ho says, is "a God-damn-mo
422 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
available wherever the persons named in that ordinance were
really zealous for Parliament and able to act personally in the
districts assigned them. And so on the 12th of July the
Parliament had passed the necessary vote for supplying an
Army, and had appointed the Earl of Essex to be its com-
mander-in-chief, and the Earl of Bedford to be its second in
command as general of horse. It was known, on the other
side, that the Earl of Lindsey, in consideration of his past
experience of service both on sea and land, was to have the
command of the King's army, and that his master of horse
was to be the King's nephew, young Prince Rupert, who was
expected from the Continent on purpose.
Despite all these preparations, however, it was probably
not till August had begun that the certainty of Civil War
was universally acknowledged. It was on the 9th of that
month that the King issued his proclamation " for sup-
pressing the present Rebellion under the command of Robert,
Earl of Essex," offering pardon to him and others if within
six days they made their submission. The Parliamentary
answer to this was on the llth ; on which day the Commons
resolved, each man separately rising in his place and giving
his word, that they would stand by the Earl of Essex with
their lives and fortunes to the end. Still, even after that,
there were trembling souls here and there who hoped for
a reconciliation. Monday the 22nd of August put an end
to all such fluttering : — On that day, the King, who had
meanwhile left York, and come about a hundred miles farther
south, into the very heart of England, was known to be
moving about between Coventry and Leicester, not without
the expectation of a conflict between the force of some 2,000
horse and foot who were then with him and the Parliamen-
tarian troops who had been gathered to prevent his threatened
seizure of Coventry. But, late in the day, after dining at
blade," and ought to be removed ; but "rails being gone, we got the surplice
the soldiers are sufficiently Anti-Prela- "to make us handkerchers, and one of
tical, for they go to Papists' houses to " the soldiers wore it to Uxbridge. This
demand loaves, and they tear down the "day, the rails of Uxbridge, formerly
rails in churches. ' ' Thursday, " he says, ' ' removed, were, with the Service-Book,
'•'I marched to Uxbridge, and, at Hill- "burned: this evening Mr. Harding
"ingdon, one mile from Uxbridge, the "gave a worthy sermon."
Aug. 1642.] RAISING OF THE KING'S STANDARD. 423
Leicester, he made a backward movement as far as to the
town of Nottingham, where preparations had been made for
the great scene that was to follow. With the King there
were the Prince of Wales and Prince Kupert, together with
such lords and gentlemen as he had chosen to keep round
him for the occasion. Among these was Sir Edmund Verney,
Knight Marshal of England and hereditary royal standard-
bearer. This gentleman's position, in consideration of the part
he had to perform, is worth describing. " My condition," he
had recently said to Mr. Hyde in a private conversation, " is
" much worse than yours, and different, I believe, from any
" other man's, and will very well justify the melancholy that,
" I confess to you, possesses me. You have satisfaction in
" your conscience that you are in the right, that the King
" ought not to grant what is required of him ; and so you do
" your duty and business together : but, for my part, I do not
" like the quarrel, and do heartily wish that the King would
" yield, and consent to what they desire, so that my conscience
" is only concerned in honour and in gratitude to follow my
" master. I have eaten his bread and served him near
" thirty years, and will not do so base a thing as to forsake
" him, and choose rather to lose my life (which I am sure I
" shall do) to preserve and defend those things which are
" against my conscience to preserve and defend ; for, — I will
" deal freely with you, — I have no reverence for the Bishops,
" for whom this quarrel subsists." It was on this gentleman,
in virtue of his office, that the chief duty devolved in the
ceremony that was now enacted at Nottingham. This con-
sist, d in bringing out the royal standard and setting it up in
due form. It was about six o'clock in the evening when it
was done, the spot being the top of the Castle-hill, or a field
close ut the back of the old Castle. When Sir Edmund
Verney and his assistants had done their work, and the great
standard was streaming out, with a special flag attached,
bearing the King's arms quartered and the emblem of a hand
pointing to a crown, interpreted by the motto "Give Caesar
his due," then, the King, the Prince of Wales, Prince Rupert,
and all tin- train, standing close round, and the horse and foot
424
LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
near, a Herald read a proclamation, declaring the cause why
the standard had been set up, and summoning all the lieges
to assist his Majesty. Those who were present cheered and
threw up their hats ; and, with a beating of drums and a
sounding of trumpets, the ceremony ended. During the
night, it was afterwards said, the standard was blown down
by a violent tempest of wind, and it could not be set right
again for several days. Nevertheless from that evening of
the 22nd of August 1642, the Civil War had begun.1
i Clar. Hist. 288, 289, and Life, 954 ;
Rushworth, IV. 183, 184 ; Whitlocke, I.
179 ; Parl. Hist. II. 1456-1458 ; Rapin,
II. 457-459. — It is strange that, in so
remarkable an affair as the setting up
of the King's standard, there should
be such a contrariety of accounts.
Rushworth makes August 22 the day,
in which he is confirmed by Whit-
locke and other unexceptionable autho-
rities ; Clarendon distinctly makes it
the 25th. Rushworth makes the place
of the ceremony ' ' a field a little on the
back of the castle wall " ; Clarendon
makes it "the top of the castle hill."
Clarendon introduces Sir Edmund
Verney as the principal figure ; Rush-
worth, though mentioning some of
the "knights-bannerets" who bore the
standard, does not name Verney. Rush-
worth makes the affair one of great
deliberation and state, after previous
appointment and lodging of the stan-
dard in Nottingham Castle for the
purpose ; Clarendon represents it as
hurried. Clarendon says the King
had very few with him, ' ' not one regi-
ment of foot yet levied and brought
together," and that the whole affair
had a melancholy look ; Rushworth
distinctly speaks of the King's train as
numerous, "besides a great company
of horse and foot, in all to the number
of 2,000." Finally, Rushworth says
nothing of the windy night and the
blowing down of the standard ; but, on
the contrary, he says the standard was
formally taken down the same evening
it was set up, and again next day set up
and taken down, and so the day after,
the King each day being present as at
first, till the third day inclusively, —
after which there was less ceremony.
Clarendon's account, as being the more
picturesque, has been followed by
Rapin and later historians. I have not
the least doubt, however, that Rush-
worth is the authority to be trusted,
both as to the day and as to other
particulars.
BOOK III.
AUGUST 1642-JULY 1643.
HISTORY: — COMMENCEMENT OP THE CIVIL WAR: THE LONG
PARLIAMENT CONTINUED : MEETING OF THE WESTMINSTER
ASSEMBLY.
BIOGRAPHY: — MILTON STILL IN ALDERBGATE STREET: His
MARUIAOK.
CHAPTER I.
STATISTICS OF THE TWO SIDES I THE TWO ARMIES AND THEIR
OFFICERS — FIRST ACTIONS OF THE WAR : BATTLE OF EDOEHILL
AND THE MARCH TO TURNHAM GREEN SKETCH OF EVENTS TILL
MIDSUMMER 1643.
A COMPLETE narration of the events of the great Civil War is
not to be looked for in this History. We shall but move
on through the war, seeking for whatever, in the midst of
it, may be more properly interesting to ourselves, and only
taking care to be cognisant all the while of the fury that
is raging around. There were, however, certain preliminary
studies of a statistical kind, bearing on the war, which the
author had to make for himself before he could proceed
with any satisfaction, or feel that he understood his element ;
and he believes that, by presenting here the results of those
studies, lie will be clearing the route for his readers, and
perhaps saving trouble to future writers.
STATISTICS OF THE TWO SIDES.
From and after the setting-up of the King's standard at
Nottingham on the 22nd of August 1642, England was rent
asunder into the two parties of the ROYALISTS and the
PARLIAMENTARIANS, otherwise called CAVALIERS and ROUND-
IIKADS. All England was so divided ; for, whatever masses
• •I indifferency there may have been in some parts of the
country at first, no sooner had the two armies begun their
marchings, and their exactions of supplies, than these
masses were effectually drawn into the strife. In the course
of the four years of war there were instances, and some
428
LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
very notorious, of shiftings from the one side to the other.
With all allowance for these, however, and also for the
deaths on both sides which remove some from the lists
almost as soon as they are formed, a tabular census of the
two parties, calculated as exactly as possible for the actual
commencement of the war, will be more welcome here to
the real student than pages of flowing description.
We begin with the Peerage. The Bishops being no longer
peers, the English Peerage in August 1642, — if we omit the
Prince of Wales (cetat. 13), the Duke of York (cetat. 9), the
Duke of Gloucester (cetat. 2), and their cousin Prince Eupert
(cetat. 23, and not an English peer till 1644, when he was
created Duke of Cumberland), — consisted of 132 persons;
of whom 2 were Dukes, 2 were Marquises, 5 9 were Earls,
6 were Viscounts, and 63 were Barons. The following is
the best classification of these I can make for our present
purpose : —
I.— EOYALIST PEERS, EFFECTIVE.*
Duke of Richmond and Lennox.
Marquis of Hertford.
,, Winchester (widower of that
Marchioness of Winchester on
whose death in 1631 Milton
had written an elegy).
Earl of Bath (taken prisoner 1642).
,, Berkshire.
,, Bristol.
„ Cambridge (i.e. the Scottish
Marquis of Hamilton) ; fidelity
suspected.
. , Carlisle (went over to the Parlia-
ment, March 1643-4).
,, Carnarvon (killed Sept. 20, 1643).
,, Chesterfield (taken prisoner,
March 1642-3).
,, Cleveland.
,, Cumberland (died Dec. 1643).
„ Denbigh (killed April 1643).
Earl of Devonshire.
Dorset.
Dover.
Huntingdon (died Nov. 1643).
Kingston (killed July 1643).
Leicester(leaningto Parliament).
Lindsey (killed Oct. 1642).
Maryborough.
Monmouth.
Newcastle (created Marquis,
Oct. 1643).
Newport.
Northampton (killed March
1642-3).
Peterborough. (His father was
to have been Parliamentarian
General of Ordnance under
Essex, but had died June 18,
1642, leaving the Earldom to
this Royalist.)
1 I account "effective" those whom
I find with the King at York in May
or June 1642 (Clar. Hist. 262 ; Parl.
Hist. II. 1296-7 and 1374 ; and copy
by me of a list in the State Paper
Office of date June 22, 1642) ; also those
whom I find afterwards figuring in the
King's service through the war, and
especially in his Parliament at Oxford
in 1643 (Parl. Hist. III. 218-19). Three
"Calls of the House," with lists of
absentees, in the Lords Journals (April
21, 1642 ; Jan. 22, 1643-4 ; May 24,
1644), have also been of assistance ; as
well as the list of Peers who met in the
Long Parliament given in the Parl. Hist. ,
with marks indicating the subsequent
career of each (II. 591—597).
1642.]
< IVII. WAI; STATISTICS: TIIK I'l
429
Earl of Portland.
., Rivers.
,, Shrewsbury.
,, Southampton.
,, Th.uR-t.
Westmoreland (at first with
tin- King, but made his peace
with Parliament 1645).
,, Worcester (created Marquis,
Nov. 1642 ; ob. 1646).
Viscount Campden (ob. 1643).
,, Con way (went over to the Par-
liament, April 1644).
Lord Abergavenny.
,, A ru IK lei of Ward our (died of
wound, May 1643).
,, Brudenel.
„ Capel.
,, Chandos (wont over to the Par-
liament, June 1644).
, , Cottington.
,, Coventry.
,, Craven, of Uamstead-Marshall
(some time abroad).
,, Cromwell (created Earl of Ard-
glass in Irish Peerage, 1644).
,, D'Arcy and Cony ers.
., Deincourt (created Earl of
Scarsdalo, Nov. 1646).
„ Digby (abroad at first, but re-
visited England).
, , Dunsmoro (made Earl of Chiches-
ter, June 1644).
.. Eure (killed 1645).
,, Fauconberg (made Viscount,
Jan. 1642-3).
,, Goring (abroad for a time, but
returned, and was created Earl
of Norwich, Nov. 1644).
,, Grey of Ruthen (died June
1643).
Hastings (son of the Earl of
Huntingdon, but peer in his
own right ; succeeded his
father as Karl 1043).
,, Herbert of Chorbury (became
Parliamentarian).
Lord Howard of Charlton (eldest son
of Earl of Berkshire, but peer
in his own right).
,, Lovelace.
„ Lyttleton (Lord Keeper: died
July 1645).
. . M..hun (died 1644).
,, Montague of Bough ton (an old
man, brother of Earl of Man-
chester: taken prisoner soon,
and ob. 1644).
,, Morley and Mounteagle.
,, Mowbray and Maltravers (son of
the Earl of Arundol, but a
baron in his own right since
L089Y,
„ Paget (apt to change sides).
„ Paulet.
,, Pierrepoint (son of the Eurl of
Kingston, out peer in his own
right ; succeeded his father
1643, and made Marquis of
Dorchester, March 1644).
,, Powis.
,, Rich (eldest son of the Parlia-
mentarian Earl of Warwick :
called to Peers, January
1641-2).
„ Savile (created Earl of Sussex,
May 1644).
,, Seymour (brother of the Marquis
of Hertford).
,, Spencer (a very young man ;
created Earl of Sunderland,
June 1643 ; killed Septomtar
1643).
,, St "Piirt<>n.
,, Strange (succeeded his father as
Earl of Derby, Sept. 1642J.
,, Wont worth (eldest son 01 the
Earl of Cleveland, but peer in
his own right).
„ Willoughby D'Eresby (son of the
Earl of Lindsey, but a Iwrou
in his own right since 1640 ;
succeeded his father as Earl,
Oct. 1642).
II.— PEERS NEARLY ALL CERTAINLY OR PRESUMABLY ROYALIST,
BUT NON-EFFECTIVE.!
Duke of Buckingham (a minor, on his
travels abroad).
Earl of Angleaea,
„ Arundel and Surrey (had gone
abroad with the Queen Feb.
1641-2 ; created Earl of Nor-
folk June 1644 ; ob. at Padua
1646).
> Under this head of "Non-Effective"
I class all who, either from old ago and
infirmity, or as minors, took no per-
sonal part, <>r who were abroad, or so
soon went abroad aa to IHJ of little use
to the Kin^' in Kn/land. In the same
elan I include those respecting whom
I have failed to find any information, —
that circumstance seeming to M
"non-elltt tivi ness." But all in this
list, with porhai* one or two ei
tions, may be accounted aa Royalists
430
LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Earl of Bridge-water (the Earl of Comus ;
invalid. His eldest son, Vis-
count Brackley, had just mar-
ried Elizabeth, second daugh-
ter of the Earl of Newcastle).
Danby (old and infirm ; ob. Jan.
1643-4).
„ Derby (old and infirm ; ob. Sept.
1642, when succeeded by his
son, Lord Strange).
,, Exeter (ob. April 1643, and suc-
ceeded by his son John, a
minor).
,. Kent (old or invalid ; ob. 1643,
and succeeded by his son
Henry, a Parliamentarian).
,, Manchester (ob. Nov. 1642, when
succeeded by his son Ld. Kim-
bolton, the Parliamentarian).
,, Nottingham (ob. Oct. 1642, suc-
ceeded by his half-brother
Charles Howard, a Parliamen-
tarian).
,, Oxford (a minor).
,, St. Alban's (Earl Clanrickarde
in the Irish Peerage, and made
Marquis of Clanrickarde 1644 ;
a Roman Catholic and Royal-
ist, but abroad).
Earl of Somerset (shelved from all
public sight since 1616 ; 06.
1645).
,, Straff ord (a minor ; restored to
his great father's honours
Dec. 1641).
,, Winchilsea.
Viscount Montague (abroad).
,, Purbeck (elder brother of the
first Duke of Buckingham ;
in retirement).
,, Stafford (a younger son of
Earl of Arundel : abroad).
Lord Audley (Earl of Castlehaven in
the Irish Peerage ; serving
against the Rebels in Ire-
land).
Butler of Bramfield (ob. 1647).
Delawar (a minor ; afterwards a
Parliamentarian ) .
Dudley (old ; ob. 1643).
Finch (Ex-Keeper ; abroad).
Gerard of Bromley (a minor ? ).
Petre (minor, and a Roman
Catholic).
Stanhope (abroad).
Teynham (a minor ? ).
Vaux (abroad).
III.— PARLIAMENTARIAN PEERS.*
Earl of Bedford (succeeded his father
May 1642, and took his place
as a Parliamentarian leader ;
was General of Horse under
Essex for a time, but went
over to the King, autumn
1643 ; again returned to Par-
liament, Dec. 1643, and was
forgiven, but shelved).
,, Bolingbroke.
,. Clare (went over to the King,
autumn 1643, but soon came
back, and was forgiven, but
shelved).
Earl of Essex (Parliamentarian General).
,, Holland (apt to change sides;
went over to the King, autumn
1643, but came back).
Lincoln.
Middlesex (on the whole on this
side ; ob. 1645).
Mulgrave (old ; ob. 1646).
Northumberland.
Pembroke and Montgomery.
Rutland.
Salisbury.
Stamford.
Suffolk.
in feeling ; and some, like Arundel and
St. Alban's, were very ardent Royal-
ists, though abroad. My authorities
in compiling the list are (1) Absence
from the King's list of Effectives in
1643-4 ; (2) List of Peers absent from
Parliament for various reasons, but not
with the King, May 1642 (Parl. Hist. II.
1297) ; (3) List of Royalist Peers abroad
(Parl. Hist. III. 219).
1 Authorities, besides general His-
tories and Peerage-books, are : Lists of
Peers present in the House, given day
after day in the Lords Journals from
Sept. 1643 onwards; List of Parlia-
mentarian Peers for Jan. 1643-4, in
Clar. Hist., p. 467 ; and a List in a
fly -sheet in the British Museum, of
date July 30, 1646, printed for "Fran-
cis Leach at the Falcon in Shoe
Lane," and entitled " The Great Cham-
pions of England ; being a Perfect
List of the Lords and Commons that
have stood right to this Parliament."
In this last list 29 names of Parliamen-
tarian Peers are given. Lord Brooke,
who is in our list, having been killed
so early as 1642-3, does not figure
among the " Champions " in 1646 ; nor,
as having been shelved meanwhile,
does the Earl of Bedford ; but among
those "Champions" do figure Lord
Herbert of Cherbury, who has in the
meantime changed sides, and a new
Earl of Kent and a new Earl of Not-
tingham, successors of the "non-
effectives " of these names in our pre-
ceding list.
1642.] CIVIL WAR STATISTICS : THE COMMONS. 431
Earl of Warwick. Lord Hunadon (Viscount Rochfort,
Viscount Sayo and Selc. son of the Royalist Earl of
Lord Berkeley. Dover : a baron since 1640 in
. I Jrouke (killed March 1642-3). his own right).
,, Bruce of Whorlton (Earl of Elgin „ Kimbolton (succeeded his father
in Scottish Peerage). as Earl of Manchester Nov.
„ Dacres. 1642).
Fielding (son of the Royalist , Maynard (till 1647).
Earl of Denbigh, but himself
a Parliamentarian ; succeeded
his father as Earl of Denbigh,
April 1643).
Grey of Wark.
Howard of Escrick.
North of Kirtling (not very
active; lived chiefly in the
country, among his books).
Roberts.
Wharton.
Willoughby of Parham.
Thus, in the great body of the English Peerage, there was
a very large preponderance of Royalism. The distinctly Par-
liamentarian peers at the beginning of the war did not
number more than 30, if quite so many, while there were over
70 peers on the King's side, and about 28 non-effective peers
who would, almost to a man, have been on that side too,
but for the causes that made them non-effective.
An analysis of the Commons House according to the
same plan of distribution is much more difficult. The basis,
of course, must be the complete roll of the House in August
1642. This roll was, of course, not quite the same as the
original roll of the House on its first assembling in Nov.
1640, or after the informal returns of that date had been
rectified by fresh elections (see antt, pp. 159 — 173). In so
large a body two-and-twenty months had necessarily made
changes. One member (Secretary Windebank) had fled at
the very outset ; about 14 had died ; some 9 or 10 had been
expelled for being concerned in flagrant commercial mono-
polies; several had been expelled on grounds of political
offence to the House, by breach of privilege or decorum,
before the actual rupture with the King ; 4 had been expelled
in Dec. 1641 for their concern in the first Army-Plot; and
8 had been called to the House of Peers, either by natural
succession or by express promotion, since the opening of the
Parliament. Thus, by the month of August 1642, there
were, in all, about 40 members on the roll of the House that
had not been original members, but had been elected from
time to time in the places of such. With these, even if we
432 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
allow for the chance that one or two of the most recent
vacancies had not been yet filled up, the roll of the House
must have exhibited its full tale of 500 and odd members.
But rarely, as we know, in the fullest House, had any
number approaching to this been present, and for two or three
months before August, as we also know, there had been a
special thinning of the attendances caused by the desertion
of Eoyalist members. On the call of the roll on the 16th
of June, as we have seen (ante, p. 415), not many more than
half the members, or let us make a large allowance and say
3 0 0, were present, — leaving 200 and odd astray, some of whom
may have sent sufficient excuses, but 45 of whom were
definitely known even then to have gone to the King's
quarters. Taking into our hands, as we might do, that roll
of 500 and odd names which was actually called over in
the House on the 16th of June, then, with the results of
that call as part of our data, but with other data to aid us,
we might try to distribute all the members, as we have
done the Peers, into the three classes of Eoyalists, Non-
effectives, and Parliamentarians, according to their known,
or most probable, whereabouts individually when the Civil
War was actually in progress.— —I have actually attempted
such a distribution ; and it was my intention here to print
the lists which I have laboriously made out, accounting for
the total House of Commons, as far as I could, in the three
categories : the names in each arranged alphabetically, and
with notes to some of them. In this I was to act on the
principle that incidental errors in such lists might be excused
in consideration of the amount and complexity of the
research required to bring them even to the state attained,
and also because, unless some one shall dare to put forth
such lists with inaccuracies, we shall never have them built
into accuracy. On the whole, however, I have resolved
to suppress the lists, or reserve them meanwhile. A block
of some pages of mere names in small type, inserted
at this point, would be too great a tax on most readers
for the use of a few ; and, to tell the truth, the more I
revise my lists, the more I doubt whether there are not
ItHli.J
CIVIL WAK STATISTICS: T1IK COMMONS.
433
more inaccuracies in them, in the way of wrong distribution
of individuals, than would be pardonable even on the
prim-iplc I have stated. I shall content myself, therefore,
with indicating in a footnote the authorities on which I
have prepuivd the lists,1 and with presenting here the
averages or general results. In these the amount of error
cannot be great.
The lists exhibit a preponderance in the Commons House in
favour of Parliament. The numbers are : — Effective Royalists,
2Q2jNon-£ffectivesQ.iid Unstables, 58; Parliamentarians, 245 ;
giving a total of 505 : which is about the full tale of the
House, if we allow for two or three seats casually vacant. If
the Non-effectives and Unstables are distributed between
1 1 1) addition to general readings in
the history of the period, the authori-
ties are chiefly these: — (1) The list of
the 45 culpable absentees on the 16th
of June in Commons Journals of that
date. (2) Notices, in the Commons
Journals and elsewhere, of the subse-
• I Hunt expelling, or as the phrase was,
i(;.<,tli/iHg, of these and many other
absentees, individually or in batches,
for being with the King, or at least for
neglect of Parliamentary duty. I have
counted 195 such cases between Aug.
1642 inclusively and the beginning of
Mil. The disabling is not always at
the moment of the offence. It is so in
glaring cases ; but it is often, or per-
haps generally, an indication that the
culprit has Inxm long and persistently
absent. On the other hand, one finds
no record of the disabling of some few
who are yet indc]»undcntly known to
have been with the King. (3) A list
of about 220 members of the House of
Commons who were still doing duty in
that House in September I*;;:}, inas-
much ;i-. on or after the 2f>tli of that
month, they signed tho Solemn League
and Covenant adopted by the Westmin-
ster Assembly. This almost fixes who
were real Parliamentarians in the Com-
mons after the war had lasted a year.
(4) Official li.-tj. | ut forth by the King
at Oxford in March 1643-4, or six
months lifter the above signing of the
nit. ..f the Lords and OommoM
still adhering t«. him. These lists
(I'arl. Ili.-t. III. L'l- ITJO) contain tl,.-
names of 118 members of the ( '< minions
who had a.-..*i-tcd in tl.. .veil-
tion or Anti-Parliament at Oxford, and
had subscribed ti Itoy.i' that
VOL. II 2
Convention sent to the Earl of Essex on
the preceding 27th of January, together
with the names of 57 others who had
joined the King since, or were absent
on tho King's service and with leave, —
in all 175 of the Commons claimed by
tho King as on his side in March 1643-4.
Some of these had signed the Covenant
at Westminster six months before, so
that their secession to the King must
have taken place in the interval. —
A sort of rtnuint or combination of tho
facts of these lists will be found in the
preliminary catalogue of members of
the Commons House for the entire dur-
ation of the Long Parliament given in
tho Parl. Hist. II. 599—629. There
the letter C prefixed to a name denotes
that the member signed tho Covenant
in Sept. 1643 and therefore was then
still with tho Parliament ; the letter O
similarly denotes that the member's
name is in tho King's Oxford lists of
March 1643-4 ; consequently, whore wo
have I ».t h C and » prefixed to a name,
wo have to conclude that tho mem-
ber was so conspicuously unstable as
meanwhile to have changed sides.
There are some errors in the catalogue,
however, and it must ho examined
with euro, and with attention not only
to the letters C'and O, but also to tho
'•sit gives of the dittiblinyt, when
those are da ted. Finally, the printed
Hy-shoot of date July 30, 16 In, entitled
"Tho Groat Champions of Kngl.-md."
referred to in a former note (p. 430),
has checked and extended the infor-
mation. It gives 266 of tho original
r..mni..n- a* then deservin.
of having IKHJII faithful to the Parlia-
mentary interest.
434 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the opposed parties according to their probable tendencies, the
Koyalists might claim about 8 of them, leaving the remaining
50 or so as presumably more or less Parliamentarian in their
sympathies. This would give over 295 Parliamentarians in
the Commons House against some 210 Eoyalists or there-
abouts ; or, if we take round numbers, and say that three-
fifths of the Commons adhered to the Parliamentary cause
and two-fifths went with the King, we shall not be far
wrong. At all events, while the vast majority of the Peers
were Eoyalists, the balance in the Commons was decidedly
the other way.
How as to the country at large ? The Commons House
of England being a representative body, it is a fair enough
conclusion that the division of opinion exhibited by this
body corresponded with the division that would have been
exhibited by the electing constituencies. True, the House
had been elected, with the exception of a few members
more recently returned to fill accidental vacancies, nearly
two years before the outbreak of the Civil War, and while
as yet the constituencies were far from anticipating so violent
a result. Still, when the House was first composed, the
constituencies did have in view a very exciting struggle, and
did send in the men they wished to represent them in that
struggle ; nor can it be supposed that, during the progress
of the struggle, the constituencies had warmed less to the
work than their representatives. It rather accords with
what we know of representative bodies to fancy that the
House, as a whole, may have fallen short of the pitch of
Parliamentarian enthusiasm that would have been required
of them by the body of the electors, and that, had a disso-
lution taken place, and the constituencies been appealed to
expressly on the question of King or Parliament, a House
much more Parliamentarian numerically would have been
returned. Waiving such a conjecture, however, we may
certainly assume that the proportion of three-fifths Parlia-
mentarian to two-fifths Royalist exhibited by the Commons
House was not in excess of the preponderance of Parlia-
1642.J CIVIL WAR STATISTICS: THE SH IKES. 4 ."».".
mentarian feeling that would have been found prevailing
throughout that substantial and well-to-do portion of the
Kn^lish people in whose hands the franchise was then placed.
But we luay go farther. Still on the principle that the
statistics of the representative body may be taken as telling
us something respecting the state of feeling among the
people represented, we may now present those statistics
in a form which will assist us in determining approximately
what parts of England were most decidedly Royalist and
what most decidedly Parliamentarian in their sympathies.
The following is a list of the counties of England and
Wales, with the numbers of cities, towns, and Parliamentary
boroughs in each, at the date in question, as also the numbers
of members returned by each to the Long Parliament, with
the most exact distribution I have been able to make of
these members into Parliamentarians, Royalists, C. O.'s, and
Non-effectives. P. stands for Parliamentarian; E. for Royalist;
C. 0. has been already explained (see footnote, p. 433); n.c.
stands for non-effective: —
COUNTY. u.Suf!! DISTRIBUTION.
Bedfordshire (shire and 1 town) . 4 = all P.
Berkshire (shire and 4 boroughs) . 10 = 5 P. + 2 R. + 1 C. 0. + 2 n. e.
Buckinghamshire (shire, 1 town,
: in. I it boroughs) 14 = 10 P. -f 3 R. + 1 C. 0.
( 'aml.rulgeshire (shire, University,
and 1 town) 6 = 5 P. + 1 R.
Cheshire (shire, and 1 city) ... 4 = 1 P. + 3 R.
Cornwall (shire, and 21 boroughs) . 44 = 14 P. + 23 R. + 2 C. 0. + 5 n. o.
Cumberland (shire, 1 city, and 1
borough) 6 = 3 P. -f 3 R.
Derbyshire (shire, and 1 town) . . 4 = 2 P. + 1 R. + 1 n. e.
Devonshirc(shiro,l city, 10 boroughs,
and 1 group of boroughs) . . 26 = 13 P. + 10 R. + 3 n. e.
Dorsetshire (shire, 1 town, and 8
boroughs) 20= IIP. -f 7 R. -I- 2 n. e.
Essex (shire, and 3 boroughs) . . 8 = all P.
Gloucestershire (shire, 1 city, and
2 boroughs) 8 = 2 P. -f 4 R. + 1 C. 0. + 1 n. o.
Hampshire (shire, 1 city, 2 towns,
1 !' 1- -roughs) 26= 15 P. + 8R. -I- 3 n. e.
l-hirc (-hire. 1 city, and
•J»M.roughs) 8= 1 P. + 6 R. +10LO.
Hertfordshire (shire, 1 town, ami
1 WoM-h) •; B I', -r 1 R.
Uantinfldonuuure(ihire.aad 1 town) 4= 3 P. + 1 R.
Kent (-hire. iVitk-s. an.l li l...r..u-h«j 10= 7 P. -r 2 R. + 1 n. e.
.in- (-hire. 1 town. aii«l ."•
jH,r..ughs). . . 14 = 8 P. + 5 R. + 1 n. e.
Leicestershire (-hue, an.i 1 town; . 4= 3 P. + 1 R.
436 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
COUNTY. MEMBERS.
DISTRIBUTION.
Lincolnshire (shire, 1 city, and 4
boroughs)
12 =
9 P. 4
2R. H
- 1 n. e.
Middlesex (shire, and cities of Lon-
don and Westminster ; London
returning 4 members) . . .
Monmouthshire (shire, and 1 town)
8 =
4 =
all P.
2R. H
- 2 n. e.
Norfolk (shire, 1 city, 2 towns, and
2 boroughs)
12 =
7 P. 4
2R. H
- 3 n. e.
Northamptonshire (shire, 1 city, 1
town, and two boroughs) . .
10 =
8 P. 4
1 R. H
- 1 n. e.
Northumberland (shire, 2 towns,
and 1 borough)
8 =
3 P. 4
5R.
Nottinghamshire (shire, 1 town, and
1 borough
6 =
2 P. -t
4 R.
Oxfordshire (shire, University, 1
city, and 2 boroughs, one of
which returns but one member)
9 =
6 P. 4
3R.
Rutlandshire (shire only) ....
2 =
2R.
Shropshire (shire, 2 towns, and 3
boroughs)
12 =
2 P. 4
• 10 R.
Somersetshire (shire, 3 cities, and
5 boroughs)
18 =
4 P. 4
11 R. H
- 3 n. e.
Staffordshire (shire, 1 city, 1 town,
and 2 boroughs)
10 =
3 P. 4
6 R. + 1 C. 0.
Suffolk (shire, 1 town, and 6
boroughs)
16 =
10 P. 4
3R. H
- 3 n. e.
Surrey (shire, and 6 boroughs) . .
14 =
7 P. 4
2R. H
- 5 n. e.
Sussex (shire, 1 city, and 8 boroughs)
20 =
10 P. 4
7R. H
- 3 n. e.
Warwickshire (shire, 1 city, and 1
borough)
6 =
4 P. -}
- 2R.
Westmoreland (shire, and 1 town) .
4 =
allR.
Wiltshire (shire, 1 city, and 15
boroughs)
34 =
23 P. 4
9R. H
- 2 n. e.
Worcestershire (shire, 1 city, and 3
boroughs)
10 =
3 P. 4
5R. H
r 2 n. e.
Yorkshire (shire, 1 city, and 13
boroughs)
30 =
13 P. 4
16 R. H
- 1 n. e.
Cinque Ports (i.e. Hastings, Rom-
ney, Hythe, Dover, Sandwich,
Seaford, Rye, and Winchilsea,
each returning two members) . 16 = 9 P. + 4 R. + 1 C. 0. 4- 2 n. e.
WALES (12 counties, and 12 towns
or boroughs, each returning
one member) 24 = 4 P. + 17 R. 4- 3 n. e.
TOTAL 511 = 255 P. 4- 198 R. 4- 8 C. 0. 4-50 n. e.
Various questions of historical interest are suggested by
this table. How had it happened, for example, that the
single remote county of Cornwall was then of such political
importance as to send a far larger number of members to
the House of Commons than any other county, — more than
a twelfth part of the whole representation of England and
Wales being vested in that extreme western horn of the
island ? How did Wiltshire chance to be next in this
1642.] CIVIL WAR STATISTICS : THESIIII 437
respect , ami why were some of the Knglish shires that
ii. now nf greatest weight so feebly represented in com-
parison ? Without staying on such questions, which would
lead back into too extensive researches, let us note what is
of chief interest for our present purposa Of the 39 English
counties, it will be noted, there were three which were wholly
represented by Parliamentarians : viz. Bedford, Essex, and
Middlesex. In twenty -one others, the Parliamentarians
were more or less distinctly in the majority : viz. Berks,
Bucks, Cambridge, Derby, Devon, Dorset, Hants, Herts,
Hunts, Kent, Lancashire, Leicester, Lincoln, Norfolk, North-
ampton, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Warwick, and
Wilts ; and it was the same with the Cinque Ports. On
the other hand, there were two counties, — Rutland and West-
moreland,— wholly represented by Royalists ; while in twelve
others Royalism was decidedly preponderant: viz. Cheshire,
Cornwall, (Houcester, Hereford, Monmouth, Northumberland,
Notts, Shropshire, Somerset, Stafford, Worcester, and York.
Royalism was greatly preponderant also throughout Wales.
In one county only, Cumberland, was there an equal balance,
— If, with these facts in mind, one looks at the map,
they assume a geographical, and perhaps an ethnographical
significance. The strength of Parliamentarianism, it is seen
at a glance, lay in the eastern counties of Middlesex, Essex,
Bedford, Cambridge, Hunts, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincoln, with
the midland counties and the south-eastern counties nearest
to these. Royalism, on the other hand, was strongest in the
west ami the north, — especially in Wales and Cornwall, and in
Somerset, Urn-toid, Shropshire, Stafford, ( 'heshiiv, \\V-tinoiv
land, and other counties near the Welsh borders. The balance
was most nearly even in some of the central counties, and in
I »• on, Dorset, Hants, Sussex, Lancashire, and York.
1 1 is not to be forgotten that the foregoing calculations
as to the relative strengths of Royalism and Parliamen-
tarianism in different parts of the country are founded mainly
on the ivtimis that had been made to Parliament two years
IM-IOIV tin- rupture. in t hese returns only the electors of that
day, and n-.t the whole body of the people, had been con-
438 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
cerned. Could we take the whole body of the people into
account, Parliamentarianism might be found to have been
even more in the ascendant than the foregoing figures
would indicate. Puritanism or Anti-Episcopacy, we know,
had taken possession of the popular mind in many districts
where those who wielded political influence still adhered to
the old Church forms ; and, wherever there was Puritanism
or Anti-Episcopacy ecclesiastically, there the political sym-
pathies were Parliamentarian. London, not only as being
the capital, and as encircling the Houses of Parliament,
but also as being the city where Puritanism was most rife,
was necessarily the Parliamentarian head- quarters. What
city or town should become the head-quarters of the
King depended on the military exigencies that might arise
in the course of the war. In Chester or in Shrewsbury he
would have been in the midst of a population adhering to
him, and on the verge of the western and Welsh region
whence he was to draw much of his levies ; but Oxford, as
nearer to London, and as a rendezvous of the higher clergy
and doctors, and of all the Eoyalism they brought in their
train, might have peculiar advantages.
THE TWO ARMIES AND THEIR OFFICERS.
Whatever may have been the numerical distribution of the
entire population of England and Wales between the two
sides, the decision was likely to be determined not by any
process of polling, but by a much more practical test. It was
likely to be determined by the superiority that might be
shown by one side or the other in raising, supporting, and
officering its army. It was quite possible that the weaker side
numerically might have the superiority in this respect ; or, if
the two sides began on something like equality in this respect,
the victory would be with that side which should first work
itself into the superiority.
How were the two armies raised ? Take, first, the Parlia-
mentarian army. So far as this army was already in exist-
ence, it had been raised by two processes. Much had been
CIVIL WAK STATISTICS: TIIK TWO ARMIES. 439
done I iv the regular plan of executing that ordinance which
had U-rii the subject of dispute between the Kiii.u and the
two Houses, and wliich at length the t\v<> Houses had passed
l»y their own authority without tin- Kind's assent (March 5,
1 il 41 -2). By this ordinance Parliament had taken what may
be called the regular military machinery of the country into
its own hands, inasmuch as it appropriated to itself the power
of appointing those persons who were to be the lords-
lieutenant, or heads of array, in the different counties. In
pursuance of the ordinance, certain persons, chiefly noblemen
of high rank, had been nominated to the lieutenancies of the
different counties. The Earl of Bolingbroke had been nomi-
nated for Bedfordshire ; the Earl of Holland for Berkshire ;
Ix>rd North for Cambridgeshire ; Lord Roberts for Cornwall ;
The Earl of Warwick for Essex ; Lord Kimbolton for Hunts ;
the Earl of Essex for Staffordshire ; the Earl of Northumber-
land for Sussex ; Lord Brooke for Warwickshire ; the Earl
of Pembroke for Wiltshire ; &c. Most of the noblemen so
appointed were men of known Parliamentarian views ; but,
whether from want of foresight at the time, or to preserve
appearances, a few peers of Royalist sympathies had also
been nominated. Thus, Lord Strange had been nominated
for Cheshire ; Lord Spencer for Northamptonshire ; the Mar-
quis of Hertford for Somersetshire. Each lord-lieutenant
was to have power to appoint deputy-lieutenants under him,
to be approved by Parliament, and to assemble, arm, and train
the subjects within his county or district, appoint officers over
tin-in, and the like. Having thus, as early as March 1641-2,
arranged the machinery, Parliament had, by subsequent
orders, when civil war seemed inevitable (May 1642), put
it in operation. The lords-lieutenant who had been nomi-
nated, or at least those of them who adhered to Parliament,
had been busy, personally or through their deputies ; ardent
members of the Commons had been sent into the counties
wh« -re they had influence, to stimulate preparations ; and the
consequence was that, at the outbreak of the war, Parliament
had levies over a considerable part of the country ready or
forthcoming. In a d d i tion, however, to these levies, raised by
440 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the application of the Militia ordinance, there were, wherever
Parliamentarian feeling was strongest, troops and companies
of Volunteers, authorized by Parliament. Nowhere, out of
London, was the Volunteering movement more eager than
in Cambridgeshire and the adjacent eastern counties, where
Cromwell had set the example. — —Meanwhile, the King,
dependent also to a considerable extent on Volunteering from
the higher ranks that were loyal to him, and especially from
the young aristocracy, had set in operation a machinery for
ordinary levies in opposition to that of the Militia ordinance
of Parliament. The lieges had been forbidden, under pain
of treason, to obey the Parliamentary ordinance, and had been
called upon to obey rather the King's " Commissions of Array,"
— viz. commissions given in the King's name to loyal noble-
men and gentlemen, empowering them to raise and arm the
subjects in different shires and districts for the King's service
(May and June 1642). By the exertions of those who acted
on these commissions of array, forces for the King had been
raised, or were forthcoming, from various parts of the country,
but chiefly from Wales, and the western English and northern
English counties.
When the two armies, thus diversely raised, were first
brought into the field, or were organized on paper with a view
to being brought into the field, this is about the shape they
assumed : —
ROYALIST ARM Y.i
(Estimated at 40,000 in Oct. or Nov. 1642.)
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF : Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsey (Lord Great Chamberlain),
till his death at Edgehill fight, Oct. 1642 ; when he was succeeded by Patrick
Ruthyen, Earl of Forth.
General of Horse : Prince Rupert (the King's nephew, cvtat. 23).
Lieutenant-General of Foot : Patrick Ruthven, Earl of Forth in the Scottish Peer-
age. (He had served under Gustavus-Adolphus, and had recently been
Governor of Edinburgh Castle. He succeeded the Earl of Lindsey as Com-
mander-in-Chief, and was created Earl of Brentford in 1644.)
Lieutenant-General of Horse : Henry Wilmot (afterwards Lord Wilmot).
Major-General of Foot : Sir Jacob Astley (afterwards Lord Astley).
1 The information I have been able Museum. It is dated 1642, — "Nov. 12"
to obtain as to the composition and added in MS. on the title-page, — and is
organization of the King's army is less entitled "A Copy of a List of all the
full and exact than that I have obtained Cavaliers and Brave Commanders of
respecting the Parliamentarian army. His Majesty's Marching Army, with
I trust chiefly to a pamphlet a copy of the number of Captains in each several
which I have examined in the British Regiment." In Harl. MS. 989 there is
1642.] THE KING'S ARMY. 441
// <> : Lord Wontworth.
-<v ; Henry Percy (afterwards Lord Percy).
>i ,,fn,-,l „„,.,; • Sir.fohn lluydmi : and then Colonel Kiehard Fielding.
C'ommutary-GfHfiiif ••/ II lit. OoMDtl Wilmot ; then Sir Arthur Aston (a
Roman Catholic).
Trtaiitm- »r't/« A nun: William Ashburnham.
matter: Sir William Bronckard.
''tt-Oetural : David Scrimshere (i.«. Scrimgeour : a Scot).
I. KINO'S LIFE-GUARDS.
We put these by themselves, as a most distinguished part of the
Army: — (1) In the King's "Troop of Guards," properly so called,
were included, according to Clarendon (Hist. 306), " most of the
persons of honour and quality," — viz. most of the young or middle-
aged noblemen, baronets, and knights of courtly habits, — who
wished to give their personal service to the King, as private
gentlemen-soldiers, without having commands. It was "so gallant
a body," according to Clarendon, " that, upon a very modest compu-
tation, the estate and revenue of that single troop might justly be
valued at least equal to theirs who then voted in both Houses," viz.
the residuary Peers and Commons at Westminster. Serving in this
troop as privates were the Earls of Dover and Denbigh, and many
other Earls and Lords ; its commander was Lord Bernard Stewart,
the King's kinsman, and a younger brother of the Duke of Rich-
mond and Lennox (he was killed, 1645) ; and in this troop was the
King's standard, borne by Sir Edmund Verney. — (2) The servants
of the noblemen and gentlemen in the King's troop of Guards
made another full troop of themselves, and, according to Clarendon,
"always marched with their lords and masters." Their commander
was Sir William Killigrew.
II. MAIN BODY OP FOOT = ABOUT 14,000 MEN.
Fourteen Regiments, averaging a thousand men each, seem to
have been available for the King about the beginning of the war.
Th. following is a list of them, with the names of the principal
officers : —
a List of ItatfimontR, Officers, &c., of 1642, which has been one of my autho-
ali-t army : l»ut, as it refers to rities, in Mr. Edward Peacock's Army
the latter jiart of the year 1644, it does / '/,, limtmilirttd* and t'ctra/iVrx
not represent the state of the King's (London, 1863). Mr. Peacock's reprint
forces at the outset of the war. Even is from a copy in the Bodleian, of which
tin- furiiH-r li.-t is va^ue and im perfect, he does not ffivo the date, and which
and has to be rectified in particulars. differs somewhat in its title, but appa-
For example, Insin^ drawn up after the rently not in its text, from the British
Karl of Lindsey's death, it does not Museum cony examined by me. He
name him as commandor-in-chief. By has confined himself to a more reprint
th.- lirlii of ( 'larendon and other autho- of the Tract, which hardly accounts f..r
I have tried t«. make th<- neces- the Kind's whole armv : Imt I have
IditioM and rectitieatioiis ; l.ut added a particular or tw.. t«, my digest
there may bo errors or anachronisms from his footnotes to individual name-.
still remaining. No one can know, I stop my naming, in each re^inn-nt.
till hu has tried, the dimculty of com- at tin- Major (then called " Sergeant -
piling such a list with anything like Major"); th.- Tract it-elf ^oi-s ,,i, t..
accuracy.— Sin.-.- ••..mpilim/ my list, I tin; Captains.
hare Men a reprint of the Tract of Nov.
442 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
1. THE EARL OF NEWCASTLE'S REGIMENT : Colonel, the Earl of Newcastle ;
Lieut. -Colonel, — Rich ; Major, — Babthorpe ; eight Captains.
2. LORD TAFFE'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Theobald, Viscount Taffe in the Irish
Peerage (afterwards Earl of Carlingford) ; Lieut. -Colonel, Sir John Rhodes ;
Major, Thomas Treveere ; nine Captain*.
3. COLONEL HASTINGS'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Henry Hastings (younger son of
the Earl of Huntingdon) ; Lieut. -Colonel, — Langley ; Major, — Stanley ;
five Captains.
4. SIR THOMAS GLENHAM'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Sir Thomas Glenham ; Lieut.-
Colonel, — Vaughan ; Major, — Wagstaff (afterwards Sir Joseph Wagstaff,
and in higher command) ; five Captains.
5. SIR FRANCIS WORTLEY'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Sir Francis Wortley ; Lieut. -
Colonel, — Russell ; Major, — Waller ; three Captains.
6. LORD GRANDISON'S REGIMENT : Colonel, William Villiers, Viscount Grandison
of the Irish Peerage (afterwards Lieut. -General, and died of wounds received
at the siege of Bristol, July 1643) ; Lieut. -Colonel, John Digby (afterwards
Sir John) ; Major, — Willoughby ; seven Captains.
7. COLONEL PORTER'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Endymion Porter (Gentleman of the
King's Bedchamber) ; Lieut. -Colonel, — Vavasour ; Major, — Stanhope (one
of the sons of the Earl of Chesterfield) ; seven Captains.
8. COLONEL ASHBURNHAM'S REGIMENT: Colonel, William Ashburnham ; Lieut, -
Colonel, — Bmerton ; Major, Sir Henry Carey, Knt. (co. Devon) ; seven
Captains.
9. COLONEL BELLASIS'S REGIMENT : Colonel, John Bellasis (second- son of Lord
Fauconberg, and afterwards himself a peer, as Lord Bellasis) ; Lieut. -Colonel,
— Murray ; Major, — Pope ; seven Captains.
10. LORD KILMURRA'Y'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Viscount Kilmurray, of the Irish
Peerage ; Lieut. -Colonel, Sir Faithful Fortescue (deserted to the King at
Edgehill) ; Major, Sir Hugh Pollard (killed 1646) ; seven Captains.
11. SIR LEWIS DIVES'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Sir Lewis Dives, Knt. (M.P. for
Bridport, made prisoner Aug. 1645) ; Lieut. -Colonel, — Lacy ; Major, Sir
William Widdrington, Bart, (made Baron Widdrington, Nov. 1643) ; five
Captains,
12. SIR CHARLES LUCAS'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Sir Charles Lucas (shot after the
siege of Colchester, Aug. 1648) ; Lieut-Colonel, — Stanley ; Major, — Kelly ;
five Captains.
13. SIR GEORGE GOTHERICHE'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Sir George Gotheriche ;
Lieut. -Colonel, — Washington ; Major, — Powell ; five Captains.
14. COLONEL OSBORNE'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Sir Edward Osborne, Bart, (father
of Thomas Osborne, first Duke of Leeds) ; Lieut. -Colonel, — Savage ; Major,
Daniel O'Neill ; seven Captains.
III. MAIN BODY OF HORSE.
Respecting this portion of the King's army, all the information
given in the pamphlet which is my principal authority is as fol-
lows : — There was a " Prince's Troop," consisting of about 500
horse, and commanded by Sir Thomas Byron, brother of the first
Lord Byron ; the Earl of Bristol had " two troops " ; the Earl of
Crawford (Ludovic Lindsay, fifteenth Earl of Crawford in Scotland)
had "three troops"; Lord Digby "two troops"; Lord Capel
" two troops " ; Lord Grandison, Lord Kilmurray, Lord Rich, Sir
Charles Lucas, Sir Geo. Gotheriche, Sir Francis Wortley, and Sir
John Byron (afterwards Lord Byron, and ancestor of the poet),
"one troop." But, in Clarendon (Hist. 306), we hear of two
or three regiments of Dragoons besides, about 1000 strong in all,
under the command of Sir Arthur Aston.
IV. PROVINCIAL DETACHMENTS = 16,000.
" I have omitted," says the compiler of the pamphlet, " the Earl
" of Cumberland his horse and foot, the Marquis of Hertford's
1642.] TIIK 1'AKUAMKNTARIAN ARMY. 44.".
" horse and foot, the Earl of Derby's horse and foot — [all] which is
"at the least 16,000— none of which has yet [Nov. 1642] been
" with his Majesty." In other words, besides the main army as
above accounted for, there were large forces acting for the King in
different parts of England under great noblemen who had been
despatched by the King on special territorial commands before he
had left Yorkshire and set up his standard at Nottingham. The
Earl of Cumberland had been placed in command of Yorkshire itself ;
the Earl of Newcastle had been sent into Northumberland, and had
acquired possession of Newcastle, and been made governor of that
town, so important for the King as a seaport ; the Earl of Derby (Lord
Strange till Sept 1642) had undertaken Cheshire and Lancashire,
under the King's commission of array ; and the Marquis of Hert-
ford, at one time thought of for commander-in-chief, had been sent
into Somersetshire with a separate commission as " General in all
the Western parts," and had taken the Earl of ttath and some of the
ablest of the King's officers with him, including Sir Ralph Hopton
(afterwards Lord Hopton).1
PARLIAMENTARIAN ARMY.
I. — ESSEX'S, OR MAIN ARMY.
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF: Robert Devoreux, Earl of Essex ; <tta(. 50. (Essex's colours
were "a deep yellow.")
Gtnfral of Horse : William Russell, fifth Earl of Bedford (afterwards went over to
the King, then came back to Parliament : l>ecame first Duke of Bedford in
1694, died 1700).
Lieut.- General of Horse : Sir William Balfour, Knt. (formerly Lieutenant of the
Tower).
General of Ordnance : John, Earl of Peterborough (died June 18, 1642, before ho
could serve).
Lieut. -Genfntl of Ordnance : Philibert Emanuel do Boyes.
tStrgtunt- Major Gciifnit : Sir John Merrick, Knt. (M.P. for Newcastle-under-Lino),
succeeded by Philip Skippon.
<t>"<>tt>niicuter-General : John Dalbier (a Dutchman, who had seen service).
•/w-flMI'tfr: Sir Gilbert Gerard, Bart. (M.P. for Middlesex).
Ail nx-iiif of thf Ariuii : Dr. Isaac Dori.sluus (a Dutchman, who had resided long in
England, had held the History Professorship at Cambridge, and had Income
• mo of the Professors in Gresham College, London).
FOOT = ABOUT 25,000 MKN.
The Foot-ltegiments were 20 in number ; each calculated at 1 200
men, exclusive of officers, and divided into ten companies: the
Co/"//»V's company, of 200 men; the Lieut. -Col<meV*> of 160; the
140; and seven Captains' companies, of 100
UK 11 each. Each company had, of course, its Lieutenant and
The Regiments, with their chief officers, successively
were as follows : 2 —
' < "• Hi • •'// the officers, —Captains, Lieutenant
itlmr-ity is .t |..un|>lilct in tin- ami Knsigns included,— are given in
Hriti.-h Musi-urn"..- 11. 1«ipj. thi« pamphlet.—! find a reprint of this
• •ntitliMl "Tin- Li-t of tin- Army rained pamphlet in Mr. Peao>rk\ .1 ,//,// Lid*
imili-r tin- <-<>nmi:in<l of ||j* Kxr.-ll.-m-y. »f'l<f Rouiutliftul* anil ' 1 1863).
<>f Kssex." The name* of
444 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
1. His EXCELLENCY THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF'S REGIMENT : Colonel, His Ex-
cellency ; Lieut.-Colonel, W. Davies ; Serjeant-Major, Jo. Bampfield ; seven
other Captains of Companies. Attached 'to this Regiment was a company of
100 Cuirassiers, for His Excellency's Guard, under Sir Philip Stapleton, Knt.
(M. P. for Borough bridge) as Captain; also a troop of 50 Carbineers. The
Regiment had a Physician and a Surgeon ; and its Chaplain was Stephen
Marshall.
2. SIR JOHN MERRICK'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Sir John Merrick ; Lieut.-Colonel,
Vincent Kilmady ; Sergeant-Major, William Herbert ; seven Captains.
3. EARL OP PETERBOROUGH'S REGIMENT : Colonel, the Earl of Peterborough ;
Lieut.-Colonel, Sir Faithful Fortescue (wrongly named "Faithful" ; he de-
serted at Edgehill) ; Sergeant- Major, Francis Fairfax ; seven Captains.
4. EARL OF STAMFORD'S REGIMENT: Colonel, the Earl of Stamford : Lieut.-
Colonel, Edward Massey (became distingiiished) ; Sergeant- Major, Constan-
tine Ferrer ; seven Captains.
5. LORD SAYE'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Viscount Saye and Sele ; Lieut.-Colonel,
George Hutchinson ; Sergeant-Major, James Acheson ; seven Captains.
6. LORD WHARTON'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Lord Wharton ; Lieut.-Colonel, Jere-
miah Horton ; Sergeant-Major, Owen Parry ; seven Captains.
7. LORD ROCHFORD'S REGIMEMT : Colonel, John Carey, Lord Rochford (son and
heir of the Earl of Dover) ; Lieut.-Colonel, Edward Aldrich ; Sergeant-Major,
Thomas Leighton ; seven Captains.
8. LORD ST. JOHN'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Oliver, Lord St. John (eldest son of the
Earl of • Bolingbroke : killed at Edgehill, Oct. 1642) ; Lieut.-Colonel. Thomas
Essex ; Sergeant-Major, Edward Andrews ; seven Captains.
9. LORD BROOKE'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Lord Brooke (killed, April 1643) ; Lieut.-
Colonel, Sir Edward Peto ; Sergeant-Major, Walter Ash worth ; seven Captains
— one of whom is John Lilburne.
10. LORD MANDEYILLE'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Viscount Mandeville, Lord Kim-
bolton ; Lieut.-Colonel, John Parkinson ; Sergeant-Major, John Drake ; seven
Captains. The Chaplain to this Regiment is Simeon Ashe.
11. LORD ROBERTS'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Lord Roberts; Lieut.-Colonel, William
Hunter ; Sergeant-Major, Alex. Hurry ; seven Captains.
12. SIR HENRY CHOLMLEY'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Sir Henry Cholmley, Knt.
(M.P. for Northallerton) ; Lieut.-Colonel, Lawrence Alured ; Serqeant-Major,
Thomas Southcot ; seven Captains. The Chaplain is Adoniram Byfield.
13. COLONEL HOLLES'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Denzil Holies (M.P. for Dorchester) ;
Lieut.-Colonel, Henry Billingsley ; Sergeant-Major, James Quarles ; seven
Captains.
14. COLONEL BAMPFIELD'S REGIMENT : Colonel, William Bampfield (went over to
the King) ; Lieut.-Colonel, Roger Wingneld ; Sergeant-Major, Samuel Price ;
seven Captains.
15. COLONEL GRANTHAM'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Thomas Grantham (M.P. for
Lincoln) ; Lieut.-Colonel, Francis Clarke ; Sergeant-Major, John Holman ;
seven Captains.
16. SIR WILLIAM CONSTABLE'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Sir William Constable, Bart.
(M.P. for Knaresborough) ; Lieut.-Colonel, Robert Grain ; Sergeant-Major,
Henry Frodsham ; seven Captains. The Chaplain is William Sedgwick. '
17. COLONEL BALLARD'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Thomas Ballard ; Lieut.-Colonel,
Francis Martin ; Sergeant-Major, William Lowe ; seven Captains.
18. SIR WILLIAM FAIRFAX'S REGIMENT: Colonel, Sir William Fairfax (killed,
Sept. 1644) ; Lieut.-Colonel, William Monings ; Sergeant- Major, Jarvis Paine ;
seven Captains.
19. COLONEL CHARLES ESSEX'S REGIMENT : Colonel, Charles Essex (killed at
Edgehill, Oct. 1642) ; Lieut.-Colonel, Adam Cunningham (killed, June 1644) ;
Sergeant- Major, ; seven Captains, — one of whom is the Colonel's
father, Sir William Essex.
20. COLONEL HAMPDEN'S REGIMENT: Colonel, John Ham pden (M.P. for Bucks) ;
Lieut.-Colonel, — Wagstaff ; Sergeant-Major, William Berriff ; seven. Captains,
— one of whom is Richard Ingoldsby. The Chaplain is William Spurstow.
HORSE = TOTAL ABOUT 5000.
The Horse consisted of 75 troops of HORSE, each of 60 mounted
men ; besides 5 troops of DRAGOONS, each of 100 men. There
were six Colonels of Horse, and one Colonel of Dragoons, each with
1642.]
THE PARLIAMENTARIAN ARMY.
445
a Major. The six Colonels of Horse were the Earl of Bedford,
General of Horse; Sir William Balfour, Lieut. -General (whose
Major-General was his somewhat noted fellow-Scot, John Urry, or
Hurry); Basil, Lord Fielding; Lord Willoughby of Parham ; Sir
William Waller, Knt. (M.P. for Andover) ; and Edwin Sandys
(mortally wounded in a skirmish, Sept. 1642). The Colonel of
Dragoons was John Browne (M.P. for Dorsetshire). Under these
Colonels and their Majors were the individual troops of Horse, each
with its Captain, Lieutenant, and Cornet The following is a list
of the Captains of all the troops : l—
75 TROOPS OP HORSB.
1. The Lord-General of Horse. 29.
2. Sir William Balfour : his Lieutenant
is John Meldrum, a Scotsman. 30.
3. Lord Grey of Groby (M.P. for
Leicester). 31.
4. The Earl of Peterborough. 32.
<count Saye and Sole. 33.
6. Lord Brooke. In this troop Robert
Lilburne is Cornet, and John 34.
Okey is Quartermaster.
7. Lord Hastings. 36.
8. Lord St. John (killed at Edgehill,
Oct. 1642). The Lieutentint in 37.
this troop is a Manna duke 38.
Cooper ; and the Cornet is Oliver 39.
Cromwell junior, Cromwell's 40.
eldest son (killed before 1644). 41.
9. Lord Stamford. 42.
10. Lord Fielding. 43.
11. Lord Wharton.
12. Lord Willoughby of Parham. 44.
13. Lord Grey of Work.
14. James Sheffield (son of the Earl of 45.
Mulgrave). 46.
15. Sir William Waller, M.P. His
Lieutenant is Richard Newde- 47.
gate, and his f'ornet Fulk 48.
Greville. 49.
16. John Gunter (afterwards Colonel, 50.
and killed at Chalgrove Field, 51.
.1 uno 1643).
17. William Pretty. 52.
18. Robert Burncll. 53.
19. Francis Duwutt. 54.
20. James Temple. 55.
•_'l. John Bird.
1TJ. Matthew Draper. 56.
Dymock.
24. Horatio Carey.
25. John Alurod (M.P. for Heydon, 57.
Yorkshire). 58.
26. John Neal. 59.
27. John Hammond.
28. K ward, 60.
M.I', fur Lincolnshire). 61.
Alexander Pym (one of Pym's
loot).
John Hotham (M.P. for Scar-
borough).
Arthur Evelyn.
George Thomson.
Edwin Sandys (mortally wounded
Sept. 1642).
Anthony Mildmay.
Edwin Kyghley.
The Hon. Nathaniel Fiennea (M.P.
for Banbury).
Edward Berry.
Alexander Douglas.
Thomas Lidcott.
Thomas Hammond.
John Dal bier.
Francis Fiennea.
Sir Arthur Haselrig, Bart. (M.P.
for Leicestershire).
Sir Walter Earle, Kut. (M.P. for
Weymouth).
John Fleming.
Arthur Goodwin (M.P. for Bucks,
Hampden's colleague).
Richard Grenviile.
Thomas Terrill.
John Hale.
H. Mildmay.
W. Balfour (U son of the Lieut..
General).
Otorg'o Austin.
Adrian Scroope.
Hercules Langrich.
Edward Wingate (M.P. for St.
Albans).
Edward Baynton (? N/Y Edward
Baynton, M.P. for Chi j»i •en-
ham).
Charles Chichester.
Henry Ireton (a lawyer, atnl. 32).
Walter Long (M.P. for Ludgers-
hall. Wilt*).
Hon. John Kiunnea.
Francis Thorn i>«on.
1 The authority is the pamphlet already cited, where all the officers' names,
down t» the <'<>rnotM, are given.
446
LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
62. Edmund West.
63. Sir Robert Pye, Knt. (M.P. for
Woodstock).
64. Thomas Hatcher (M.P. for Stam-
ford).
65. Robert Vivers.
66. William Anselme.
67. OLIVER CROMWELL (M.P. for Cam-
bridge). His Lieutenant is Cuth-
bert Baildon, his Cornet Joseph
Waterhouse, and his Quarter-
master John Desborough.
68. Robert Kirle.
69. William Wray.
70. William Pretty (secundus or junior).
71. Sir John Sanders.
72. Thomas Temple.
73. Valentine Walton (M.P. for Hunts).
74. Sir Faithful Fortescue.
75. Simon Rugeley.
DRAGOONS : 5 TROOPS.
1. Sir John Browne.
2. Robert Mewer (? Muir, and a Scots-
man).
3. William Buchan (? a Scot).
4. Sir Anthony Irby, Knt. (M.P. for
Boston).
5. James Wandloe.
II. — FORCES OF THE CITY OF LONDON AND SUBURBS : TRAINED
BANDS AND AUXILIARIES*.
GENERAL: "The Right Worshipful Philip Skippon, Esq., Major-General of all
' ' the Forces of the City of London, one 'of the Committee for the Militia, and
" Captain of that ancient and worthy Society exercising arms in the Artillery -
" Garden of the same City."
1. Six REGIMENTS OF CITY TRAINED BANDS.
Names of Regiments, &c.
IST, OR RED REGIMENT
(limits, Aldgate, Mark
Lane, Tower Street, Bil-
lingsgate).
2ND, OR WHITE REGIMENT
(limits, Cornhill, Lom-
bard Street, Fenchurch
Street, the upper part of
Gracechurch Street).
Officers.
Colonel, Alderman Atkins ; Lieut. -
Colonel, Captain Royden; Major,
— Mannering (who had "a shop
in _Cheapside, near Ironmonger
Lane") ; 4 Captains.
Colonel, Alderman Isaac Penning-
toiijM.P. ; Lieut. -Colonel, George
Langham ; Major, Robert Davies
("a slopmaker for seamen near
Billingsgate ") ; 5 Captains.
Estimated
Numbers in
Sept. 1643.
1,000
1,190
(of whom 600
"muskets,"
520 "pikes,"
and 70 super-
numeraries).
1 My information about this very in-
teresting portion of the general army
of the Parliament is derived from three
sources : — (1) A Tract in the British
Museum
date 1642,
and "printed for Henry Overton,"
entitled ' ' A List of the Names of the
several Colonels, and their Colours, with
the Lieut. -Cols., Sergeant-Majors, and
Captains and Lieutenants, appointed
by the Committee for the ordering of
the City of London " ; (2) Another and
better fly-sheet in the Museum, dated
1642, "printed for Richard Thrale,"
and entitled "The Names, Dignities,
and Places of all the Collonells, Lieut. -
Collonels, Sergeant-Majors, Captains,
Quartermasters, Lieutenants, and En-
signs of the City of London " ; (3) A
Manuscript in the British Museum
(Harl. 986) written by Richard Symons,
a Royalist, containing "The Ensigns of
the Regiments in the City of London,
both of the Trayned Bands and Auxili-
aries : together with the nearest num-
ber of their trayned soldiers, taken as
they marched into Finsbury Fields,
being their last general muster : Tues-
day, Sept. 26, 1643 : anno pestifene
Rebellionis." In this MS., whose de-
scription is later by a year than that of
the two printed tracts, the writer has
jotted down, in contempt and malevo-
lence, curious particulars as to the
occupations and antecedents of some
of the chiefs of the city-soldiery.
1642.] 1IIK PARLIAMENT. Mil AN ARMY 447
Estimated
Nairn-* of Regiment*, Ac. Officers. Numbers
in Sept 1643.
>R YELLOW REGIMENT, i',,i,,,,,l. AMerman Wollaston ; 1,024
(limits, Cheapside, St. . -' '••/•,««/, John Venn (M.P.
I'iiul's I'hurehyurd, |>art f<>r London); Major, — Bradley;
of Watlinj; Street, jwirt 1 ''<t^ainf, of whom one is "a
\ cwgate Market, Lud- grocer " and two are " woollen-
gate, Bluekfriars, Ac. drapers." Among the Ensigns
is a "Ralph Woodcock."
4rn. OR BLUB REGIMENT. Colonel, Alderman Adams ; Lieut.- 1,000
Colonel, Edmund Foster ; Major,
— Carlton ; 4 Captain*.
5TH, OR GREEN REGIMENT. Colonel, Alderman Warner ; Lieut.- 836
Colonel, Captain Co veil ; Major,
Matthew Foster ; 3 Captains.
6TH, OR ORANGE REGIMENT. Colonel, Alderman Towes ; Lieut.- 1,101
Colonel, Rowland Wilston ;
Major, — Geere ; 3 Captaitu.1
Total of City Trained Bands .... 6,178
2. ADDITIONS FROM THE SUBURBS.
TOWKK HAMLETS REGIMENT 1,304
WESTMINSTER REGIMENT 2,018
SOUTHWARK REGIMENT 1,394
Total of Suburban Bands 4,716
Green Regiment .
White Regiment ,
Regiment .
Yellow Regiment ,
Red Regiment . ,
Blue Regiment
Orange Regiment
Total of all Trained Bands .... 10,894
3. AUXILIARIES (VOLUNTEERS?).
,200
,000
,000
,000
,000
,000
,000
Total of Auxiliaries 7,200
IIL — FAIRFAX'S ARMY IN THE NORTH.
Shortly after the beginning of the war (not till Nov. 1642,
«er), the Parliament, in order more effectually to counteract
the Earls of Newcastle and Cumberland, commanding separately
for the King in the north, caused a commission to be made out,
appointing Lord Ferdinando Fairfax (M.P. for Yorkshire) to be
Parliamentarian General-in-Chief for Yorkshire and the adjacent
counties. This Lord Fairfax, who was the Parliamentarian of
1 I liavi- not continued my note* from another, a Lirnt.-Cot..{Jut "a skinner in
to tin- occupation- Southwark"; and a Major as "a soap-
of tho otliccr- «f the la.-t three regi- boiler in Southwark." — Some of these
merit*; l-ut I tin<! i. -men turned out good and brave
described as "a stiller of strong waters officers.
in St. Mary at Hill Road, Billing*^, •
448 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
greatest influence in the north, was sbout sixty years of age ; but
he had for his General of Horse and assistant in command his son
and heir, Sir Thomas Fairfax, who, though hardly past thirty, was
a trained soldier, — having served in the Low Countries under Horatio,
Lord Vere, whose daughter he had married on returning home. The
two Fairfaxes, father and son, under whom Sir John Hotham and
his son were also prominent men, had speedily an army of about
6000 horse and foot, with which they maintained the Parliamentary
cause in the north as substitutes there for Essex.1
In the officering of both armies at the outset, it is easy to
see, two principles were observed. Commands were given to
the men of greatest rank and influence on either side that
were willing to take them ; but, cceteris paribus, a preference
was shown to those who, as having already had military
experience, were supposed to be fittest to lead. Some care
seems, indeed, to have been taken on both sides to bring in
whatever of already trained military talent was to be had.
The commanders-in-chief on both sides were noblemen in
whom high rank and professional experience in arms were
united.2 On both sides, whether among the lieutenant-
colonels or majors of regiments, or among those in higher posts
who would practically have most to do in advising and assist-
ing the commander-in-chief, we find the names of known
professional soldiers, Scottish, Irish, and Dutch, as well as
English ; and, though great noblemen, and wealthy knights
and baronets, who can have had no previous training in
arms, are mingled with these in large proportion, it is gener-
ally in posts where their duties may have been honorary
until they had learnt something of the real business. The
natural post, in either army, for an energetic peer, or an
energetic knight or squire of the Commons House, if he came
to the work rather from goodwill than from previous practice
in soldiering, seems to have been the colonelcy (honorary) of
a foot-regiment, where he might leave things to the acting
lieutenant-colonel and the sergeant-major, or the captaincy
of a troop of horse, where he might hope sooner to acquire a
1 Clar. Hist. 346, and Wood's Fasti, rades in the Low Countries : Clar.
II. 148, 149. Hist. 307.
2 They had served together as com-
1642.J OFFICERS OF THE TWO ARMIES. 449
knowledge of his work. It was in the latter post that Oliver
Cromwell, at the age of forty-three, began his career in the
Parliamentary army. There were more than a dozen of his
colleagues in the Commons who were also only captains of
horse-troops, though one or two took colonelcies of horse or
of dragoons at once, and one or two more, like several peers,
conjoined captaincies of horse with honorary colonelcies of foot.
Hampden, Denzil Holies, and others of the eminent Parlia-
mentarians, and Bellasis, Endyinion Porter, and others of the
recent M.P.'s of the King's side, began as colonels of foot-
regiments.
Now, on the whole, what strikes one in studying the
history of the war is the apparent non - preponderance of
already trained military efficacy on either side. It seems
to be the opinion of competent military critics that there
were moments in the first months of the war when first-
rate generalship on either side might have brought matters
to a swift conclusion. As it was, with all the welding of
supposed professional experience, English, Scotch, Irish,
and Dutch, into the systems of the two armies at the outset,
with all the show of Gustavus-Adolphus men on the one
side to match and overcrow Gustavus-Adolphus men on the
other, the English Civil War had to breed for itself, out of
native stuff, the soldiers that were to conclude it. On the
Parliamentarian side, in particular, the very course of affaire
consisted in a gradual education of all concerned, bringing
gradually to the front the men that were to displace the
first commanders and take the war into their own hands.
Essex, respected nobleman though he was, and so popular at
first with the men that, as he rode along their ranks, they
would throw up their caps and cry " Hey for Old liobin ! " l
soon proved himself one of the heaviest of generals. It was
the same with not a few of his associates and successors from
whom better things were expected. When the heaven-born
leaders did appear, they were found largely among men who
had jnincil tin- army with im military experience of a special
kind artjuiivd hy previous service, but whose natural apti-
» Wbitlocko, I. 191.
VOL. II 2 G
450 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
tude for command had been proved in the school of their first
training. One might speculate on what might have become
of the "John Gunter" mentioned in our list as captain
of the horse-troop No. 1 6 in the Parliamentary army, had
he lived to see the war through. He was " looked upon,"
says Clarendon, " as the best officer of horse they had, and a
" man of known malice to the government of the Church,
" which had drawn some severe censure upon him before
" the troubles, and for which he had still meditated revenge."
But this otherwise all but unknown Gunter met his death,
when he had attained colonel's rank,1 in the same action,
early in the war, in which Hampden was mortally wounded
(Chalgrove Field, June 1643). Without vain conjecture,
therefore, over this and similar cases, one may turn, for the
best illustration of the way in which the real native military
genius latent in the Parliamentary army was training itself
for ultimate success, to the case, of Oliver Cromwell.
Of extraordinary reputation for zeal and practical energy,
and latterly, as we have seen, of the very highest influence in
Parliament, Cromwell was now, in his mature life, a captain
of Horse Volunteers. From the moment of his assuming
this command he had thrown his whole soul into it. He had
worked hard at the mechanical part of his duty, in drilling
his men and learning how to drill them, taking lessons in
the art from the Dutchman Dalbier.2 But he had, from the
first also, a singular notion as to how one might succeed as
a military officer. He had a notion that an officer should
pick his men, and pick them on a definite principle. " He
" had a brave regiment of horse, of his countrymen," says
Whitlocke, speaking of Cromwell, when he had just risen
to be colonel, "most of them freeholders and freeholders'
" sons, and who upon matter of conscience engaged in this
" quarrel, and under Cromwell. And thus, being well armed
" within by the satisfaction of their own consciences, and
" without by good iron arms, they would, as one man, stand
" firmly and charge desperately." 3 It must have been with a
1 Whitlocke makes him only 2 Carlyle's Cromwell, I. 198.
" Major : " I. 204. 3 Whitlocke, I. 209.
1642.] OFFICERS OK THK TWO ARMIES : CAPT. CROMWELL. 451
view to this double qualification of his men, as not only
well armed and well drilled, but also of the right sort indi-
vidually, that Cromwell himself, writing to his kinsman
St. John, in Sept. 1643, used these words: "My troops
" increase. / have a lovely company ; you would respect
" them did you know them." If these words do not go to a
Volunteer captain's heart of the present day, that captain
has a lesson to learn. At a much later period, we have
Cromwell's own most memorable summing-up on this head,
in that famous passage of one of his speeches in which,
when Protector, he expounded the chief secret of his
military success. " I was a person," he there says, " who,
" from my first employment, was suddenly preferred and
" lifted up from lesser trusts to greater, from my first being
" a captain of a troop of horse, and did labour as well as I
" could to discharge my trust ; and God blessed me as it
" pleased Him. And I did truly and plainly, — and in a
" way of foolish simplicity, as it was judged by very great
" and wise men, and good men too, — desire to make my
" instruments help me in that work. And 1 will deal
" plainly with you : I had a very worthy friend then ; and
" he was a very noble person, and I know his memory is
" very grateful to all, — Mr. John Hampden. At my first
" going out into this engagement, I saw our men were
" beaten at every hand. I did indeed ; and desired him
" that he would make some additions to my Lord Essex's
" army of some new regiments; and I told him 1 would
" be serviceable to him in bringing such men in as 1 thought
luid a spirit that would do something in the work. This
" is veiy true that I tell you ; God knows I lie not. ' Your
" * troops/ said I, ' are most of them old decayed serving-
" ' men, and tapsters, and such kind of fellows ; and,' said I,
' f/ifir troops are gentlemen's sons, younger sons and
' persons of quality : do you think that the spirits of such
"'base and mraii I'dlnus will ever be able to encounter
" ' gentlemen, that liuvc honour and courage and resolution
in them ?' Truly I did represent to him in this manner
" conscientiously ; and truly I did tell him : ' You must
452 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOEY OF HIS TIME.
" ' get men of a spirit ; and, take it not ill what I say, — I
" ' know you will not, — of a spirit that is likely to go on as
" ' far as gentlemen will go : or else you will be beaten
" ' still.' I told him so ; I did truly. He was a wise and
" worthy person ; and he did think that I talked a good
" notion, but an impracticable one. Truly I told him I
" could do somewhat in it." *
In this passage we have not only a principle in the
philosophy of armies which will hold true to the end of
time, but also, as in a flash of light, a resumd of the whole
history of the English Civil War. The progress of the
Parliamentarians towards victory consisted in the gradual
extension of Cromwell's principle, which even Hampden
thought visionary, to more and more of the Parliamentary
army, until the whole was leavened by it. As the principle,
however, remained Cromwell's own, this process of the
gradual dynamizing of the Parliamentary army into the mood
of certain victory is to be conceived as keeping pace, step
by step, with his personal promotion.
We have not been anticipating in all this. As we cannot
relate the events of the Civil War in detail, it is the more
necessary to take any opportunity that may occur of ex-
pressing the essence of them in a generalization. Let the
reader, therefore, hover for a moment in imagination over
the two armies, as we have been able to tabulate their states
at the outset, i.e. in Sept., Oct., and Nov. 1642. But only
for a moment. Even as he gazes down upon the two
armies so represented, they are in flux and motion. Deaths
are occurring in them, deaths by shot and by sword ;
prisoners are being taken on both sides and placed hors
de combat; captains are becoming colonels, colonels are
rising into general commands, and subalterns are moving
up to captaincies ; nay, new masses of recruits are being
attached ever and anon to both armies, to repair losses, or
to swell the numbers ; and these bring with them, of course,
new officers, who are to distinguish themselves more or less.
Of some of those additions and modifications, whether in
1 Speech, April 13, 1657 : Carlyle's Cromwell, III. 249-50.
1-M-J 1 FIRST WEEKS OF THE WAR, 453
the general bodies, or in particular persons, we shall hear
in time. Meanwhile, whatever persons of military conse-
quence, on either side, the reader may keep in view,
trying to discern their figures through the mist, let him
expect the emergence of Oliver Cromwell.
FIRST WEEKS OF THE WAR: BATTLE OF EDGEHILL — KING'S
ADVANCE ON LONDON THE MARCH TO TURNHAM GREEN.
At the moment of the raising of the King's standard at
Nottingham (August 22), neither army was in the full state
just represented. The King's levies, according to Clarendon,
were much the less forward ; so that, if Essex's army, which
had its head-quarters then at Northampton, some sixty miles
off and between the King and London, had made a sudden
move northwards, the King and his small force, including
Rupert's cavalry, might have been whelmed into ruin. To
gain time, in these circumstances, the King consented to a
mock negotiation, and the Earl of Southampton, with Cole-
pepper and Falkland, came up to London on the business.
Nothing came of it, or could come of it ; and the King, his
object having been gained, made a westward movement
towards the Welsh borders, in expectation of such forces
and supplies there as might enable him to assume the
aggressive. There was some doubt whether he should go
to Chester or to Shrewsbury ; but he resolved on Shrewsbury.
He arrived there Sept 20, and had a splendid reception
among t)»e Royalists of those parts. To check him, Essex
lifted his army from Northampton to take it to Worcester,
about forty miles south-east from Shrewsbury, and rather
in the line between it and London. Why he did not do
more, why he did not march upon the King and crush him,
was still the question among Parliamentarian critics sitting
at home. It may be that people at large in such cases
expect things which military men know cannot be done;
but partly it may be that Essex was really a heavy strate-
gist, ami HIM) illy unready to fight the King while a chance
454 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
of peace was left. But on the other side there was greater
alacrity. Eupert and his Cavaliers were out on the dash
through the country between Shrewsbury and Worcester ;
and what was the consternation among the Parliamentarians
when the news spread that in a skirmish, quite close to
Worcester, between Eupert and an advanced body of Parlia-
mentarian horse under Colonel Sandys, the latter were
thoroughly beaten, poor Sandys mortally wounded, and not
a few prisoners taken ? So, in this first action of the main
war, — called the Fight of Powick Bridge (Sept. 22), — the
success had been for the King. It helped him greatly, and
heartened those around him. Troops for him poured in
from the Welsh and western counties ; plate and supplies
came in ; an understanding was come to with wealthy
Roman Catholics in those parts, on the faith of which they
advanced money ; one gentleman, anxious to be made a
baron, obtained his wish for GOOD/. : all was so hopeful in
the King's quarters that the cry arose for a direct and
swift march upon London, leaving Essex behind or beating
him on the way. The alarm of this reached London,
rousing Parliament to all sorts of orders about the calling
out of Trained Bands and Volunteers, and the erecting of
guard-houses, with posts, bars, and chains, in different
streets and by-lanes in the City parishes and in West-
minster. Meanwhile, after proclamations of the King to his
army and of Essex to his, declarations of the King to his
loyal subjects, and even another small attempt at negotia-
tion,— this time on Essex's part, — the King had begun his
march from Shrewsbury (Oct. 2). By Bridgenorth, Wolver-
hampton, Birmingham, and Kenilworth, he had got as far
as the border of Warwickshire towards Oxfordshire, when
Essex, who had left Worcester to intercept him, brought
him to a stop. There ensued (Sunday, Oct. 23) the BATTLE
OF EDGEHILL, called also the Fight of Keinton, as having
been fought near that village in South Warwickshire. It
was a battle claimed by both sides, or in which, as Whit-
locke phrases it, " the Parliament had a great deliverance
and a small victory." The slain on both sides together
:»>42.] BATTLE OF EDGEHILL. 455
were calculated at 5,000. Among these were, on the King's
side, the Earl of Lindsey, commander-in-chief, Lord Aubi^ny
(brother of the Duke of Richmond and Lord Bernard Stewart),
and the Royal standard-bearer, Sir Edmund Verney. On the
side of Parliament there fell Lord St. John of Bletsho and
Colonel Essex.1
It was not till after a day or two that accurate news of the
battle reached London. There, meantime, knowing of the
King's approach, but not knowing whether Essex might be
able to prevent him, the Parliament had made the Earl of
Warwick captain-general for the defence of the city, and had
ordered the shops to be closed, and all stables searched for
horses. When the correct news of the battle did arrive,
great was the relief. It was treated as a victory, and speeches
in that sense were made at Guildhall. In fact, the battle
did stop the King's army for the time in its intended
approach to the metropolis, although Oxford, where it took
up its quarters after the battle, was considerably nearer to
London than was the place where the battle had been fought.
But the notion of a march upon London had taken posses-
sion of the King and of his chief advisers, especially
Rupert; and, accordingly, after a little stay of the King
at Oxford, the Londoners began to see an ugly meaning
in Rupert's raids with his horse out of Oxford, as if
fingering towards London. In one of these raids Reading
came into the King's hands; and, when he removed
thither himself, instead of merely putting a garrison in
it, matters looked still more ominous. It was something,
indeed, that Essex, who had quartered himself at War-
wick after the battle of Edgehill, was now in London to
superintend arrangements. But there was great alarm ; and
among the citizens there was a vehement party, headed by
one Mr. Shute, who, while refraining from any disrespect
to Essex, did not hesitate to complain of general mismanage-
ment and want of energy among the Parliamentarian
officers. There was a strong appeal on all hands for
i Clar. 307—312; WhitUke, I. 184-7; Rush worth, V. 23—89; Purl. Hi ' II
MM 1504
456 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Volunteers ; London apprentices were released from their
bonds for the time, that they might recruit the ranks ; and
Skippon, as city major-general, was in his glory. All
London was astir. And it was high time. The King was
pushing on, adjourning the negotiations for which Parlia-
ment had again petitioned till he should be nearer London.
On the 9th of November, when Essex was receiving the
thanks of both Houses, and 5,0 OOZ. from the Commons, for
his conduct at Edgehill, the King was at Colnbrook, seven-
teen miles from London, with his army all round him, part
at Staines, part at Milton's old residence of Horton, &c.
Here, again petitioned by a Parliamentary deputation for
negotiation through commissioners, he seemed to agree, and
sent a free-conduct to certain persons that were to treat with
him. But scarcely had the Parliamentary deputation re-
turned to London with this message (Nov. 11) when the King,
following Eupert's advice, who longed to be in among the
rascally Londoners, and had pressed on to Hounslow, resolved
to advance to Brentford, some seven miles only from London.
His plea was that he had just heard that part of the Earl
of Essex's army had been drawn out of London towards
Brentford. This act on the Parliamentary side obliged,
lie said, a change of place on his ; which, however, need not
interrupt the proposed treaty, if the Parliament were still
in earnest about it. He would treat at Brentford ! Before
this letter, written by the King on the 12th, can have
reached London, its purport was carried thither by the
boom of great guns heard in the air. They were the
guns used in the action by which Brentford became the
King's. The small Parliamentary force that was in the
town, consisting of a regiment or so under Colonel Holies,
had barricaded the streets before the King came up, and
behaved stoutly ; but, though Lord Brooke and Hampden
came up to assist them, they were forced to retire with loss,
and on the night between Friday the llth and Saturday
the 12th of November the King entered Brentford.
The effects in London on that Saturday were terrific.
There was one burst of indignation at what was called the
Nov. 1642.] THE MARCH TO TURNHAM GREEN. 457
King's treachery in advancing stealthily towards London
while a treaty was in progress ; there was a hurry-skurry
through the streets in expectation every hour of the tramp
of Rupert's horse nearer and nearer for the assault of the
city ; in thousands of households there was fear of the
bullets that might soon be crashing windows, of doors
dashed open, Cavalier soldiers rushing in, and the spolia-
tion of goods. Out of all this multitudinous excitement
there emerged, however, a most creditable display of courage
and discipline. Essex and the Parliament having consulted,
and Lord Mayor Pennington, who was also colonel of one
of the chief city-regiments, having bestirred himself among
his brother officers of the Trained Bands, the right course
was adopted. London sent forth her Trained Bands and
Volunteers to join the army of Essex in repelling the ex-
pected assault and saving the city. Before the night of
Saturday the 12th was well over, and all through the
morning of Sunday the 13th, there was a stream of
marching men on the great road west out of London, by
Kensington and Hammersmith. Conspicuous in the stream
was Skippon, riding backwards and forwards along the
column of his own Trained Bauds, and addressing short
speeches, now to this company and now to that, all in this
strain : " Come, my boys, my brave boys, let us pray heartily,
" and fight heartily ; remember the cause is for God and for
" the defence of yourselves, your wives, and children ; come,
" my honest brave boys, pray heartily and fight heartily, and
" God will bless us." The rendezvous was at Turnham
Green, then a common, about two miles from Brentford ;
and there, accordingly, the whole little army of Essex's
regulars and the Londoners, to the number of 24,000 in
all, stood drawn up in battalions for many hours on Sunday
the 13th, facing the King's somewhat smaller army similarly
drawn up. It was a day and a night long remembered
by all who took part ; perhaps not the less comfortably that
there was no battle after all. The Londoners, indeed, were
in high spirits, .l.-liu'litrd with Skippon, and calling out " Hey
for O1<1 Ilnliin !" wherever Essex appeared; and there were
458 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
movements and feints of advance on both sides, — on each
of which the hundreds of horsemen who had come out as
mere spectators would gallop off towards London, thinking
the battle was about to begin, and carrying with them, it
is said, soldiers, in sixes and sevens, who had slunk from
their colours. But Essex and the old Army-men were for
letting the King retire if he chose to do so ; and, much to
Eupert's chagrin, the King at last did think it fit to retire.
Back through Brentford town vanished his troops and ord-
nance gradually, all in retreat to Colnbrook whence they
had come, and taking with them only the prisoners captured
in the attack on Brentford, among whom was Captain John
Lilburne.1 Then there was such a scene of relief and ex-
ultation among the Parliamentarians. The cartloads of pro-
visions, beer and wines, which the good wives of London had
sent out, " mindful of their husbands and friends," were
brought into requisition, and what had seemed likely to be
a great battle ended in a vast picnic. All being clearly
safe, Essex at last dismissed the citizen-soldiers ; who re-
turned, cheering and chatting along the road, to London,
to sleep in their own beds that same night. The whole
incident may be remembered as The March to Turnham
Green.2
EVENTS TILL MIDSUMMER 1643 : A MAP-SKETCH.
From Colnbrook the King backed to Reading and thence
to Oxford, which from this period and through the rest
of the war was the Royal head-quarters. Essex, on the
other hand, satisfied with what he had done, went into
winter-quarters at Windsor, thus placing himself between
the King and London, in view of any fresh attempt on
1 Lilburne, with other prisoners, was farther exhibitions of his unique temper.
terwards tried at Oxford before Judge 2 My authorities for the account of
Heath, acting- for the King. The most it, and for this paragraph generally,
stubborn and pugnacious of men, he are, — Rush worth, V. 52— 60 ; Clar. Hist.
refused to plead because he was styled 317—320 ; Parl. Hist. III. 1—15 ; Whit-
Yeoman " in the indictment. Sued locke, I. 189— 193. Whitlocke is more
on an amended indictment, he was con- graphic than usual in his account of
demned to death ; but, Parliament the Turnham Green march, and has
threatening retaliation, hewas spared, for supplied particulars.
Nov. 1642— June 1643.] PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 459
London on the King's part, but earnestly hoping that the
winter months would bring peace. There were many who
shared this hope with Kssex, and had indeed expected from
the first that, if the Civil War took the form of one battle,
that would be all. The events of the subsequent winter,
and of the spring and early summer of 1643, showed the
folly of such hopes. These events need be presented here
only in the briefest possible summary.
It is necessary to premise that, though there was no part
of England in which there were not actions, skirmishes, and
plots, or at least armed vigilance of Royalists against a
minority of Parliamentarians, or of Parliamentarians against
a minority of Royalists, yet, partly from the peculiar geo-
graphical massing of the opposed elements at the commence-
ment, and partly from the efforts at organization made on
both sides during the winter, the real strife distributed
itself over five sections of the country (tending to become
fewer), while two other sections remained comparatively
exempt. Parliamentarianism being strongest, as we have
seen, in the eastern counties of Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk,
Essex, Cambridge, Herts, Hunts, and Beds, and those
counties, or the greater part of them, having been formed
into an " association " under Lord Grey of Wark, which
was extremely well managed, — this whole region of the
Eastern Counties, the virtual capital of which was the town
of Cambridge, lay, to a great extent, out of the actual
strife. It became a source whence the Parliament could
derive power and supplies, not requiring to be re-expended
on the producing region itself, but available for work in
other parts of England.1 For the King a similar function
was served by the Welsh Counties in mass, and some parts
of the English counties closest to the Welsh border. In
Cheshire and Shropshire, indeed, where the King had so
1- < . ntly been in person, and which he had left apparently
>ure tnr his cause, there were some Parliamentarian efforts.
There were suoh efforts especially in Cln^hiiv. when- Sir
1 F<T dutail.s of the management "f .-in- 1 <-f rromwi-ll'x jwrt in it, see Car-
Eafttern Counties Association." lylc'- Cromwell, I. 101— 110.
460 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
William Brereton, one of the members for the county, for-
tified Nantwich for himself and his friends, and made it a
centre of operations. But, Sir Nicholas Byron having been
sent by the King to take command of the city of Chester, and
Lord Capel having been subsequently sent to Shrewsbury,
with a commission as lieutenant-general for the King in
Shropshire, Cheshire, and North Wales, Brereton and the
Parliamentarians were kept in check. The result, generally,
was that, just as the Eastern Counties and their northern
fringes were the assured reservoir of strength for the Parlia-
ment, so Wales and its northern fringes were the assured
reservoir of strength for the King. Between these two
assured regions, however, and containing the two eyes, or
advanced stations, whence the elements massed in the two
respectively gazed across the map at each other, — London,
the Parliamentarian capital, and Oxford, the King's head-
quarters,— was the large intermediate region of the Midland
Counties generally, divisible into the Northern Midlands of
Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire,
Northamptonshire, and Warwickshire, and the Southern
Midlands of Bucks, Berks, and Oxfordshire. This, then,
was one great battlefield, or sectional theatre of the general
war. It may be called the main or central theatre ; for here
it was that the King in person, with Rupert and the Earl
of Forth, was in conflict more particularly with the strategy
of Essex as Parliamentary general-in-chief. But, out of this
region, and anxiously surveyed from it, there were four others,
which were the theatres, for the time, of military operations
carried on independently, though with interconnexions and to
one end. One of these was the region of the South-Eastern
Counties, including Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hants ; another
was the region of the English counties bordering on South
Wales, including Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester ; a third
was the South- Western region, including Wilts, Dorset,
Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall ; and the fourth was the great
region of the North, comprehending the shires of Northumber-
land, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, York, and Lancaster.
Let us try to grasp the results of the war by following it
Nov. 1642— June 1643.] PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 461
in each of its five theatres or regions as far as to the Mid-
summer of 1643. We shall take the regions in the order
which will most conduce to clearness in the narrative.
[. The South-Eastern Counties. — Next to Essex, no military
man on the Parliament side began in the war with more
golden opinions than Sir William Waller. This may have
been partly from trust in his strongly pronounced Presbyterian
principles and his military antecedents (see ante, p. 170), but
arose also from a series of decided successes of his in the
first months of the war itself. Just before the raising of
the King's standard, Colonel Goring, to whom the Parlia-
ment had entrusted the government of Portsmouth, and
whom they intended to make lieutenant-general of horse
under Essex, had revealed himself in his true colours and
declared that he would hold Portsmouth for the King.
To recover this important sea-town of the south became at
once an object with the Parliament, and Sir William Waller
had been sent to accomplish it. He had done so with com-
parative ease, — Portsmouth surrendering to his army early
in September 1642, and Goring taking refuge abroad. The
south-eastern parts of England being thus naturally assigned
to Waller, he had returned to them, after the battle of
Edgehill and the affair of Brentford, and had gradually
cleared them of all wrecks of the opposition, — taking Farnham
in Surrey (Dec. 1), Winchester (Dec. 13), and Chichester
(Dec. 29). By these actions the South-Easterii Counties
almost ceased to be a separate theatre of war, and Waller
was set free for service elsewhere.1
II. Tlie English Counties on tlie South- Welsh Border. — The
counties of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford were, from
their geographical position, in part manageable from the
King's own head-quarters at Oxford. Rupert, indeed, did at
first take Gloucestershire within the range of his excursions ;
and one action of his there, — the storming of Cirencester
(Feb. 2, 1642-3), — was considered a brilliant feat. But for
the farther management of those parts, and especially for the
» Wood's Athome by fill**, III. 814 ; 882; Riwh. V. 100, &<-. : I'url. Hist. II.
Clar. Hist. pp. 285-7, 34" I 1440 and 1465, and III. 87 and 40.
462 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
reduction of the important city of Gloucester, which was
held most tenaciously for the Parliament by Colonel Massey,
a new plan was adopted. The lieutenant -generalship of
South Wales for the King had been entrusted to Edward
Somerset, styled Lord Herbert of Raglan, eldest son of the
Marquis of Worcester, and himself afterwards the Marquis
of Worcester so celebrated for his device of a steam-engine
and the rest of his " Century of Inventions." Both father
and son were Roman Catholics ; but the King's policy now
required the services of important men of that religion, and
there were no wealthier or more splendid noblemen in the
West or in Wales than these. The father, accordingly, had
been raised from the Earldom to the Marquisate (Nov. 1642);
in which new dignity he continued to live in studious and
somewhat eccentric retirement in his castle of Raglan,
allowing his son the free use of his great revenues in that
more active career which the King had assigned to him.
This inventive nobleman, not content with merely governing
South Wales and keeping it to the King's interest, made the
magnificent offer to raise an army at his father's expense,
with which to issue out upon the adjacent English counties,
wrest Gloucester from Massey, and then increase the King's
central forces at Oxford. The offer having been accepted,
Lord Herbert did raise a fine little army, and, with his
brother, Lord John Somerset, as his master of horse, and
a Colonel Lawley as his major-general, marched (Feb. 1642-3)
towards Gloucester. But it proved, as Clarendon says,
" a mushroom army." For Sir William Waller, leaving his
own south-eastern region, made a rapid march through
Wiltshire, and, having acquired Malmesbury on the way
(March 21), appeared among Lord Herbert's Welshmen close
to Gloucester with such an effect of consternation that,
without fighting at all, most of them became his prisoners,
and the rest fled. Lord Herbert himself was then at Oxford ;
but the hopes from his lieutenant-generalship on the Welsh
borders were virtually at an end. Waller, pushing on
rapidly, took Hereford and Tewkesbury (April and May
1643); and, having thus not only saved Gloucester and
Nov. 1642-Junel643.] PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 463
confirmed Massey there, but also extended the sway of
Parliamentarianism in all that region of orchards, returned,
a triumphant man, to Essex's head-quarters.1
III. The Midland Counties. — In this large central region
of the war, — divisible, as we have said, into the Northern
Midlands and the Southern Midlands, — less was done than
had been expected. The Northern Midlands were, in the
main, held most effectively for the Parliamentary cause by
Ixml Brooke, of Warwick Castle, as head of the " association "
that had been formed in these counties. He was assisted
by such leading Parliamentarians in the several counties
as Lord Grey of Groby, son of the Earl of Stamford, in
Leicestershire, and Sir John Gell in Derbyshire. Almost
all the towns and castles in those Midlands were possessed
for Parliament. There were some successful efforts for the
Kiiijj, however, both in Leicestershire and Derbyshire, by
Colonel Hastings, a younger son of the Earl of Huntingdon ;
and Staffordshire was the scene of considerable strife. In
this county occurred two incidents of the war, each made
memorable by a conspicuous death. One was the siege
of the Cathedral Close of Lichfield by Lord Brooke,
\\lin had hastened thither to dispossess a body of Royalists
that had taken possession of it, — in the course of which
siege his lordship was killed by a musket-shot in the eye
received as he was standing at a window near the Close
(March 1, 1642-3); the other was a sharp fight at Salt
Heath, near Stafford, where the Royalists were victorious,
but their leader, the Earl of Northampton, was slain (March
19, 1642-3). These incidents and the quest of forage
and amniunitinn for Oxford brought the rapid Rupert up
on an excursion into the North Midlands : and the taking
and punishing of Birmingham, then reputed the most
heartily disloyal town in England (April 3, 1643), and the
re-taking of Lichfield (April 21), were his exploits. The first
cost the drath of tin- Karl «.f Denbigh.— —Meanwhile had
Essex been personally idle in his especial district of tin
» Clar. pit. 861, 862, and 417 ; Wood's Athenio, III. 199-204 ; Whitloc-ko, 197 :
464 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
South Midlands, where he had set himself down at Windsor
to protect London and watch the King at Oxford ? Nearly
so. The state of Essex's mind with regard to the war was
such as to disable him, even had he had the necessary
strategic talent, from being an aggressive commander-in-
chief. Faithfully and honourably to act on the defensive
for London and the Parliament against any move of his
Majesty, but not, if it could be avoided, to drive his Majesty
to extremities : such was Essex's plan. A bold march upon
Oxford, which many cried for, was an enterprise which he
may have thought imprudent in generalship, but from which
at any rate he shrank morally. Besides, negotiations, those
everlasting negotiations, were again on foot. There had
been a deputation of eminent members of both Houses to
Oxford in January to implore his Majesty to consider the
state of the country and to consent to treat. These deputies
had made some stay, had seen his Majesty repeatedly, and
talked freely with his advisers ; and, their arguments aided
by the sight of bleeding prisoners from Cirencester and
other places carried into Oxford, they had settled pre-
liminaries to farther negotiation through commissioners.
Then, early in March, the commissioners appointed by
Parliament for the purpose, — the Earl of Northumberland,
Sir William Armyn, Sir John Holland, the Hon. William
Pierrepoint, and Mr. Bulstrode Whitlocke, — had gone, in high
hopes, to Oxford. For nearly six weeks the treaty lasted,
with increase of hope to its close, but with absolutely no
result. In consequence probably of recent successes which
the King had heard of on his side, Eupert's capture of
Birmingham included, it was broken off on April the 12th.
Then Essex, who had been waiting anxiously for a different
result, was moved to some activity. It took the form, not
of a march on Oxford, but of a SIEGE OF BEADING. In
this town, lying between Windsor and Oxford, the King had
placed a garrison of 3,000 men under Sir Arthur Aston
as governor ; the town was of importance ; and it contained,
in addition to its natural population, not a few Eoyalists
who had taken up their residence in it for the time, as well
Nov. 1642— Jane 1643.] PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 465
as deserters from Essex's army. The siege began on the
15th of April, with an army of 15,000 foot and 3,000 horse,
commanded by Essex in person ; much of the work was
done by Skippon ; and, on the 27th of April, notwithstand-
ing the advance of the King and Lord Forth from Oxford
to the relief, the town was surrendered. The terms of
surrender on the part of the garrison were arranged, not
by Sir Arthur Aston, who had been disabled by a wound,
but by his second in command, Colonel Fielding. A storm
of indignation from the King and others descending on
this unfortunate gentleman, he was condemned to death by
court-martial at Oxford, but reprieved. Satisfied with the
taking of Reading, Essex relapsed into torpor.1
IV. The South -Western Cminties. — A great deal of the
most important fighting took place in this region, including
Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall We have
seen that, just before war was declared, the King, then in
Yorkshire, had sent the great Marquis of Hertford into
Somersetshire, to stir up and muster the masses of Royalism
in those parts, with a separate commission as his Majesty's
general-in-chief in the West. The Marquis had gone to his
post, with the Earl of Bath, Lord Seymour, Lord Paulet,
Sir Ralph Hopton, and others, in his train. He had taken
up his head-quarters at Wells ; but, after some triumph there,
he had been obliged, by the rising of Parliamentarians in
unexpected force all round him under local leaders, to retire
into Dorsetshire. He was here when a Parliamentary army
that had been sent to counteract him, under the Earl of
Bedford and Mr. Denzil Holies, made its appearance. No
battle had followed ; but the news of the taking of Ports-
mouth by Waller, and of the probable junction of Waller's
forces with those of the Earl of Bedford, convinced the
Marquis that he could no longer remain in those parts,
and that it would be best to rejoin the King. With some
diHiriilty, accordingly, he, Lord Seymour, Lord 1'aulrt, and
most of his officers, returned through Somerset and crossed
1 Clar. pp. 348—350, and 381—385. one of the commissioner*) ; Kiwhworth,
Wbitlocko, pp. 1U4-201 (account of V. 147— 152, and 2tf.r. : htrl. Il.>t. III.
negotiation* of peace, for which he waa 99—109.
VOL. II '1 II
466 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the Bristol Channel to Glamorganshire on their way north-
wards to the King, leaving only Sir Kalph Hopton and a
few determined men to try whether something might not
be done in Cornwall. These last the Earl of Bedford treated
only as fugitives who would soon be made an end of by the
Devon Militia, and whom it was unnecessary for him to
pursue into the western horn of the island. He, therefore,
returned to the Earl of Essex (Sept. 1642). But he was
much in error. In Hopton the King had a soldier who
was worth more than the great Marquis. Extraordinary
news began to come out of Cornwall. By wonderful talent
in managing the natives of that peculiar county according
to their own ways, and with the assistance of Sir Bevis
Greenville, Sir Nicholas Slanning, Mr. John Arundel and
Mr. John Trevannion, — all Cornish gentlemen of influence
and recently in Parliament, — Hopton became master and
more in Cornwall, drove all troublesome Parliamentarians
out of it, and began, with a little army raised in the county,
to make incursions into Devon, as far as Exeter (Nov. 1642).
The defence of Devonshire for the Parliament devolved for
the moment chiefly on Colonel Euthen, or Euthven, a
Scotsman, governor of Plymouth, who did as well as he
could against Hopton. But, to make matters surer, the
Parliament caused Essex to give Denzil Holies, whom Bedford
had left in Somersetshire, and who was governor of Bristol,
a separate commission as commander-in-chief in the West
(Dec. 1642). Hopton, however, continued victorious. On
the 19th of January 1642-3, he defeated Euthen and a
Parliamentary force near Liskeard, thus not only assuring
his hold of Cornwall, but making such a demonstration
for the King in the extreme West as to divert more and
more of the attention of Parliament in that direction. The
Earl of Stamford was sent thither with a very considerable
army. Him also Hopton utterly routed, in a battle, fought
May 16, 1643, at Stratton on the borders of Cornwall, — a
service of such merit that when, for it and others, the
King some time afterwards (Sept. 1643) made Hopton a
peer, the title chosen was " Baron Hopton of Stratton."
Nov. 1642— June 1643.] PROGRESS OF THK W. VI:. 467
The immediate result of Hopton's Cornish successes was
that the Marquis of Hertford came back from Oxford to
resume his enterprise of rousing the collective Royalism
of all the south-western counties. He brought Rupert's
brother, Prince Maurice, with him, as his lieutenant-general,
and, gathering strength largely as he passed through
Somerset and Dorset, joined his forces with those of the
victorious Hopton on the borders of Somerset and Devon.
This was early in June. Taunton, Bridgewater, and other
places in those parts, were immediately won for the King,
and the Royalists looked forward to the taking of Bristol.1
V. The Northern Counties. — In these counties, where the
population was much divided, and where at the outbreak of
the war Sir Thomas Glenham at York and the two Hothams
at Hull were the chief agents in the field on both sides, there
WES at first a natural disposition of the leading inhabitants to
remain neutral, and to live and let live till the controversy
should be worked out by proceedings elsewhere. There was
even a sort of paction to that effect among the chief York-
shire gentry. But this could not be permitted. On the one
hand, the Earl of Newcastle, who had been sent into North-
umberland by the King, before the war broke out, to take
possession of the seaport of Newcastle and otherwise exert
his great influence in that extreme of England, was not con-
tent with keeping Northumberland and Durham inactive
and securing the great port, but wished to whirl the strength
of those parts southwards through the intervening counties
to the King's help. On the other hand, the Parliament were
by no means content that the great county of Yorkshire
should be stagnant, — a county where, though York was the
King's, they counted Leeds, Halifax, Bradford, and other
towns, their own. A commission from Essex had, therefore,
been sent down, in November 1642, empowering Lord Fer-
dinando Fairfax to act as Parliamentary general-in-chief in
Yorkshire and the northern counties adjacent. Fairfax, and
his military son, Sir Thomas, hastened to act upon this com-
' riar. pp. 273, 287-296, 343, and 897-400; Part. Hint. III. 39, 40; Rush-
worth, V. 271.
468 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
mission and raised a considerable army in South Yorkshire
where already the two Hothams, father and son, were acting
for the Parliament from Hull. The command for the King
in Yorkshire having been entrusted to the Earl of Cumber-
land, and that in Lancashire to the Earl of Derby, there were
nominally three leading Earls for the King, — Newcastle,
Cumberland, and Derby, — in the region which Parliament
had assigned to the Fairfaxes. The Earl of Cumberland,
however, being inactive and willing to waive his powers,
and the Earl of Derby being more haughty in the cause
than efficient, the real conduct of the war for the King in
the whole of the North devolved on the Earl of Newcastle.
Early in December he extended his sway beyond his own
shires of Northumberland and Durham as far as the city
of York, — thus converting a large portion of the North of
England, with York for its capital, into a clear Royalist
area. Into the area so cleared there arrived, at this very
juncture, a personage whose presence, without interfering
with the Earl of Newcastle's generalship, added a dignity to
his enterprise and a special interest to his province of the
war.— — Queen Henrietta-Maria, after having been abroad for
a whole year, during the latter part of which she had sent
much ammunition, &c., into England by way of Newcastle
had run the hazard of returning in person, bringing with her
what additional war-stores a Dutch ship could carry. She
landed safely on the Yorkshire coast on the 22nd of February
1642-3, and was received with enthusiasm at York. Thence-
forward, if not before, the Royalist army in the North went
by the name of the " Queen's Army," alias the " Popish Army."
Colonel Goring, who had also returned, became, by the
Queen's interest, its general of horse, while the lieutenant-
generalship, under the Earl of Newcastle, was entrusted to
a Scotsman named King. Against this Queen's army the
Fairfaxes, not much assisted by the jealous Hothams of Hull,
did what they could. Substantially, however, they were
restricted to a section of Yorkshire, while the Earl of New-
castle was so much master of the rest as to be able to think
of passing his own bounds and overflowing into the North
Nov. 1642— June 1643.] PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 469
* .
Midlands and the Eastern Counties. He had planted a
garrison at Newark in Nottinghamshire on the borders of
Lincolnshire ; and now, pressing still southwards, he harassed
the Parliamentarians of the Midlands all round, and perturbed
Lincolnshire itself. On the 23rd of March, Colonel Cavendish
a very young man, brother of the Earl of Devonsliire, having
been sent by the Earl into Lincolnshire, took the town of
Grantham. It is in this eddy of the general war, — the
eddy in and about Lincolnshire, caused by the meeting of
the Koyalist tide rushing from the North and the resisting
Parliamentarian tides from the Midlands and the Eastern
Counties, — that Cromwell, now a Colonel, first flashes into
military notice. Cromwell's work had mainly been within the
" Eastern Counties Association " hitherto ; and Lincolnshire,
though an eastern county, was not yet formally included in
the Association. His eyes, however, had naturally turned
across that county to the Fairfaxes, trying to maintain
themselves in Yorkshire. Could the Eastern Counties and
the adjacent North Midlands club forces so as to break
through to the aid of the Fairfaxes, that would be tlieir
contribution to the war ! The Eastern Counties, even by
themselves, must prevent Lincolnshire from being over-
run. Accordingly, all through May 1643 Cromwell was
in Lincolnshire, and the first notable action of his Iron-
sides was the defeat near Grantham of a much larger body
of Royalist troops that had come from Newark (May 13).
Cromwell's eyes were still directed northwards, in the
hope of a junction with the distressed Fairfaxes for a
rescue of Yorkshire ; and this hope was heightened by the
news of a great victory gained by Lord Fairfax at Wakefield
over the Earl of Newcastle's troops (May 21). This was a
gleam of joy for the Parliamentarians ; but their prospects
in the North were still very precarious.1
» Clar. pp. 378, 346, 347 ; Rushworth, work has boon a chronology of the war
78, 126, 156 ; Parl. Hint. III. 40— drawn up by myself from my reading
49, 74—77, 89, 90 ; and Carlyle's in many books. Hovering over thin
('roinwull, I. 103— 122.— With reference chronology, and studying lU items in
to ray summary of the war as a whole I their relations of time ana place, I have
may hero say that, though I have cit. .1 tri«-<l to systomati/o it into a narrative.
some authorities, my immediate ground- and have altered the arrangement and
4*70 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
From this summary of the events of the war in the different
parts of England as far as to June 16 43, it will be seen that",
though there had been much agony and bloodshed, there had
been little progress towards a conclusion. If the Parliament
had won in some parts, it had lost in others ; and, on the
whole, regard being had to what had been done by Hopton
and the Marquis of Hertford in the South- West, and by the
Earl of Newcastle in the North, the King might be thought
the gainer. Desertions to his side, and meditated desertions,
implied such a belief. That Urry, or Hurry, major-general
of horse under Sir William Balfour, had resigned his com-
mission, and gone to Oxford to better his prospects under
Lord Forth and Prince Eupert, was nothing. He was but
a Scottish soldier of fortune, a Dugald Dalgetty. More im-
portant, if not more significant, were the desertion to the
King of such men as Sir Hugh Cholmley, M.P. for Scar-
borough, the known wavering of the two Hothams in the
same county of York, and the discovered treachery of
the poet Waller, M.P. for St. Ives. Waller's was a very
flagrant case. He and some other men of influence in
London had been lured into a plot for a stroke against
Parliament and its chiefs. The plot was discovered at the
end of May 1643. The plotters were arrested ; two of the
subordinates were hanged ; Waller also, after a most abject
admission of his guilt, was sentenced to death. The sentence
was not executed ; and, after a year's imprisonment and a
fine of 10,000/., Waller was permitted to carry his damaged
character, and his poetical and gentlemanly tastes, abroad
till easier times.1
Little wonder that the Parliamentarians, and especially
the Londoners, heavily taxed in their purses for the current
expenses of the war, and inconvenienced besides by the
stoppage of their coal from Newcastle, were disgusted with
grouping two or three times before ing Clarendon in most places is like
settling on what I found the clearest. walking on velvet. Faults and all, he
As one has frequently to object to is a splendid writer ; and, even while
Clarendon's inaccuracyand partisanship, doubting him, one has again and again
I may here say that, in his narration of to go to him in order to understand
the events of the war, his grasp of those things.
events, and his skill as a literary artist, 1 Clar. 347, and 389—394 : Parl. Hist,
deserve the highest admiration. Read- III. 120—129, and 140—143.
June 1643.] DEATH OF HAMPDEN. 4*71
the state of affairs. Secretly, if not openly, it was Essex
that was blamed. Was he not too slow, too aristocratically
reverent, too much impeded by fears of the issues of the very
movement he had been appointed to lead ? His single feat
in seven months had been the Siege of Reading. Was that
enough ? Might there not be a better generalissimo ? Sir
William Waller, for example ? He was not much to look at
beside Essex, being but a little man personally l ; but he had
succeeded yet in everything he had tried, and his principles
both in Church and State would carry him farther than Essex
was likely to go. For the moment, Waller was decidedly
the favourite. People had begun, in consequence of his
uniform and easy success hitherto, to call him " William the
Conqueror." Then, again, failing Waller, was there not
Hampden ? Every one knew his principles, and what a man
he was when his mind was made up. Might they not make
Hampden general-in-chief ? Alas ! whatever hopes there
might have been in that scheme, it could never be tried.
Hampden's days were numbered. The alert young Rupert,
acting on information he had received from the deserter
Urry, was dashing east from Oxford among outlying parties
of Essex's horse on the borders of Bucks. He had made
one successful raid, and was returning from another, when
he found himself pursued by a body of horse sent by Essex
for the purpose. He faced about to meet them. It was
the morning of the 18th of June 1643, and the place was
Chalgrove Field in Bucks, not far from the borders of Oxford-
shire. Rupert beat his pursuers and escaped before Essex
himself could come up. The Parliamentarian Colonel or
Major Gunter was killed in the skirmish, and Hampden
was carried off the field mortally wounded. Like Douglas
in the old ballad,
Never after in all his life-days
He spoke mo words but one :
" Fight ye, my merry men, whiles ye may,
For my life-days be gone." 2
i Wood'. Ath. III. 814. * Ruahworth, V. 274 ; Clar. 386, 395, and 401.
CHAPTEE II.
MILTON NOT IN THE ARMY : HIS TURNHAM GREEN SONNET, AND
INTEREST IN THE SIEGE OF READING I HIS MARRIAGE — THE
POWELLS OF FOREST HILL.
IF there was any man in England of whom one might
have surely expected that he would be in arms among the
Parliamentarians, that man was Milton. Four years before,
when the news of the rupture between the King and the
Scots had reached him at Naples, had he not abandoned the
intended prolongation of his tour into Sicily and Greece, and
returned homewards, expressly on the ground that it would be
disgraceful for him to be enjoying himself abroad while his
fellow-countrymen at home were fighting for liberty ? ] Was
not this a pledge that, if that rising of the Scots did extend
to England, he would be in the midst of it, with heart and
limb as well as with head and pen ? And had not all that
he had done since committed him farther to such a
course ? While over the whole of England men who had
hitherto been saying little were fighting and dying for the
Parliament, and even the merchants and apprentices of
London were going about in uniform and ready to fight,
how could this man of note, this writer of Anti-Episcopal
Pamphlets, this out-of-doors friend and ally of all that was
extreme and Eoot- and -Branch within the Parliament, —
how could he be absent from the ranks ? He had no
domestic ties to keep him back. He was a bachelor, well-
off, and in the prime of life, and his household consisted
but of himself, two nephews, and one woman-servant or
1 See ante, Vol. I. p. 816..
1642-3.] MILTON'S MIUTAKY KNOWLEDGE. 4*73
housekeeper. For active service in some post in Essex's
army, or surely at least among the London Trained Bands
and Volunteers, here was the very man.
At some time or other during his life, and by some means
or other, I am perfectly sure, Milton had acquired some
practical knowledge of drill and of military forms and
manoeuvres. That he habitually or generally wore a sword,
and that he considered himself an extremely good swords-
man, and more than a match at that weapon for men of far
heavier weight than himself, we know on his own testimony.1
This only implies, however, that he had been taught fencing
in his youth, probably at Cambridge. What I mean at pre-
sent is something more. There are passages in Paradise
Lost which prove to me that Milton knew the pike-manual,
company and battalion drill, and something of officer's work
at parade and review, and also of artillery practice.
Take the description of the collected host of rebel- Angels,
after they have been roused from their first stupor in Hell,
mustering on the sulphur-plain before their commander
Satan (P. L., I. 549—571):—
Anon they move
In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood
Of flutes and soft recorders, such as raised
To highth of noblest temper heroes old
Arming to battle, and instead of rage
Deliberate valour breathed, firm and unmoved
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat ;
Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage
With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase
Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain
From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they,
Breathing united force, with fixed thought
Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed
Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil. And now
Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front
Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise
Of warriors old, with ordered .-pear and shield,
Vol. I. p. 308.
474 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Awaiting what command their mighty chief
Had to impose. He through the armed files
Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse
The whole battalion views, their order due,
Their visages and stature as of gods ;
Their number last he sums.
There is much here that a mere occasional onlooker at
reviews might have compassed ; but there are touches in
the description (as, for example, the ordering of arms at the
moment of halt, and without word of command) too exact
and technical to have occurred to a mere civilian.
Again, at the same review, when Satan, standing with his
staff around him, wishes to address his army, here figured as a
battalion, how is the incident described (P. Z., 1. 6 1 5 — 618)?
He now prepared
To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half enclose him round
With all his peers : attention held them mute.
To the present day this is the very process, or one of
the processes, when a commander wishes to address his
men. They wheel inwards, and stand at " attention."
But, for a passage showing even more intricate knowledge
of military methods, take the account of the procedure of
Gabriel when, having reason to think that Satan has
stealthily made his way into Paradise on some bad errand,
and is somewhere within its precincts, he orders his com-
pany of guardian- Angels out on their rounds of night-watch,
and otherwise sees to the protection of Adam and Eve from
their wily foe (P. L., IV. 7 7 7 — 7 9 9). Understand, first, that
Paradise is described as a kind of oblong of garden-ground
and woodland enclosed within walls, and that the station,
or let us say armoury or guard-house, where Gabriel and
his Angels have their post, is at the eastern gate of Paradise,
at the middle of one of the narrow sides of the oblong.
There, while daylight lasted, the Angels had been exercising
themselves, like young soldiers, in heroic games, while
Gabriel sat and looked on ; but this was over, and it was
1642-3.] MILTON'S MILITARY KNOWLEDGE. 475
that time in the evening when the guard was due, i.e. about
nine o'clock: —
Now had Night measured with her shadowy cone
Half-way uphill this vast sublunar vault,
And from their ivory port the Cherubim,
Forth-issuing at the accustomed hour, stood armed
To their night-watches in warlike parade ;
When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake :
" Uzziel, half these draw off, and coast the south
" \Vith strictest watch ; these other wheel the north :
" Our circuit meets full west." As flame they part,
Half wheeling to the shield, half to the spear.
From these two strong and subtle Spirits he called
That near him stood, and gave them thus in charge :
" Ithuriel and Zephon, with winged speed
" Search through this Garden ; leave unsearched no nook ;
" But chiefly where those two fair creatures lodge,
" Now laid perhaps asleep, secure of harm.
" This evening from the Sun's decline arrived
" Who tells of some infernal Spirit seen
" Hitherward bent (who could have thought ?), escaped
" The bars of Hell, on errand bad no doubt ;
" Such where ye find seize fast and hither bring."
So flaying, on he led his radiant files,
Dazzling the moon.
This too, with all its beauty, is exact. It is a captain
Id caking his company into subdivisions by the order
" right-and-left-wheel " (the Roman equivalent for " right-
wheel" being "wheel to the spear, or spear-hand," and for
" left-wheel " " wheel to the shield, or shield-hand," — declinarc
(id ha&tam, vel ad scutum, as Livy has it) ; after which the
two subdivisions " file-march " in the moonlight in contrary
directions round the oblong space to be guarded, one under
the captain and the other under the lieutenant : two scouts
having meanwhile been detached to advance straight across
the oblong and search the interior as they go. And
in tin- scijucl we have the same exactness. The scouts are
successful in their search. They find Satan, squat like a
toad, in Eve's nuptial bower as she sleeps, insinuating
divaiii- int.. her car; and, having Compelled him into his
own shape, they lead him prisoner to the \\.-i.rn .-nd of
4*76 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Paradise, They arrive (864, 865) when the two subdivisions
of the watch, each after its half-round,
Just met, and, closing., stood in squadron joined,
Awaiting next command.
Here we see the two subdivisions of Angels, after their
file -marches separately from the other end of Paradise,
meeting and re-forming company, precisely as soldiers would
do, by the act known as closing. But more follows. Ere
Gabriel can give them any command, he is aware of the
approach of the two scout-Angels with their prisoner. Then
there come the proud talk and defiant demeanour of Satan,
till, at length, after his last insulting speech, the band of
Angels are moved by a sudden impulse to attack him. And
how (978—984)?
While thus lie spake, the Angelic squadron bright
Turned fiery-red, sharpening in mooned horns
Their phalanx, and began to hem him round
With ported spears, as thick as when a field
Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends
Her bearded grove of ears which way
The wind sways them.
The full relish of this passage is reserved for those who know
what is meant by " ported spears " ; and not one of all Mil-
ton's commentators hitherto has been among them. " With
ported spears : with their spears borne pointed towards him,"
is the explanation given by the earliest and one of the best of
the commentators ; and it has been repeated by all the rest,
down to one of the latest and best, who puts it thus, "ported,
borne, advanced." l Nothing of the kind ; and the error is
the more curious because the commentators have generally
given the accompanying explanation that " to port the pike "
was a military term. So it was ; but that Milton was more
knowing than his commentators in his use of the term
argues that he must have seen pikes " ported " oftener than
they. The "port" is not the advancing of the weapon,
1 Annotations on Milton's Paradise Keightley's Milton, 1859, vol. I. p.
Lost, by P. H. (i.e. Patrick Hume), 377.
?, folio, London, 1695, p. 166 ;
1..U-3.] MILTON'S MILITARY KNOWLEDGE. 477
whether pike or bayonet, straight forward as if to push it
into an enemy. That is the " charge " ; and the " port " is the
movement or position preparatory to the " charge." It is the
grasping of the pike diagonally across the body, butt down
towards the right, and point upwards in the air over the
left shoulder, so as to be ready to bring it down strongly
and suddenly, by a half-wheel of the body, to the push for
receiving an enemy. This brings out the beauty of Milton's
image and makes the Angels better soldiers than the com-
mentators would make them. For, were spears well ported,
the slant spear-heads all parallel over the left shoulders of
a whole company of men might be compared to ripe corn-
stalks blown by the wind, off the perpendicular, all one
way. What on earth the commentators made of the image
when they fancied that " ported spears " meant spears thrust
straight forward, as if to push or receive a push, passes
comprehension.
While practical knowledge of the manual exercise and of
drill generally is clearly implied by these and other passages
in Paradise Lost, there are passages implying also some
acquaintance with larger field-movements and with artillery
practice. Take, for one example, that passage with which
some critics have been so much scandalized on the grounds
of taste, where Milton, in his narrative of the wars in
Heaven, describes the Kebel host as renewing the fight, on
the second day, with that new machinery of gunpowder and
cannons which they have invented and perfected by labour
overnight, and of which the loyal Angels are not yet aware
(P. L., VI. 549 — 594). It is early morning in Heaven, and
intelligence is brought to the loyal Angels that the enemy
is slowly on the move towards them.
Instant without disturb tluy took alarm,
And onward move embattled ; when behold
Not dUtant far with li.-avy par.- tin- foe
A j.j »roaching gross and huge, in hollow cube
Training his <l«-vilMi ••iiLfinry. impaled
.-TV -id«- with ilndowing aqaadroDfl d
To hide the fraud.
478 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
This is very exact for a masked battery on the move
with an army. Then, when the two armies are at a little
distance, Satan suddenly appears at the head of his, and
there follows that speech which has most of all shocked the
critics, commencing with the word of command,
Vanguard, to right and left the front unfold.
While this order is being executed, Satan continues in a strain
of horrible irony, mixed with puns about the way in which
the enemy are likely to receive this new " overture " of his,
and about his own readiness to " discharge " his part freely,
and the readiness of his men to " touch " what he " pro-
pounds." The result of this strange procedure, at which
Michael's loyal host had all the while been gazing, won-
dering what it meant, is thus described by one of them : —
He scarce
Had ended, when to right and left the front
Divided, and to either flank retired :
Which to our eyes discovered, new and strange,
A triple-mounted row of pillars laid
On wheels (for like to pillars most they seemed,
Or hollowed bodies made of oak or fir,
With branches lopt, in wood or mountain felled),
Brass, iron, stony mould, had not their mouths
With hideous orifice gaped on us wide,
Portending hollow truce. At each behind
A Seraph stood, and in his hand a reed
Stood waving tipt with fire ; while we, suspense,
Collected stood, within our thoughts amused :
Not long, for sudden all at once their reeds
Put forth, and to a narrow vent applied
With nicest touch. Immediate in a flame,
But soon obscured with smoke, all Heaven appeared,
From those deep-throated engines belched, whose roar
Embowelled with outrageous noise the air
And all her entrails tore, disgorging foul
Their devilish glut, chained thunderbolts and hail
Of iron globes ; which, on the victor host
Levelled, with such impetuous fury smote
That whom they hit none on their feet might stand,
Though standing else as rocks, but down they fell
By thousands.
1642-3.] MILTON'S MILITARY KNOWLEDGE. 479
It may, of course, be argued that much of the acquaintance
with military affairs shown in these and the preceding pass-
ages is only such as might have been acquired by any
observant man who, without undergoing drill himself, had
opportunities of seeing soldiers at their manoeuvres, and had
been sufficiently inquisitive about military matters to read
a few military books. Milton may have had in his library
the Dutch collection by Scriverius of the " Vetcres de Re
Militari Scriptures" published in 1607; and he is likely
enough to have included some of those writers in his Greek
and Latin studies, as well as to have read the translations
of some of them, and other military books in English. We
know for certain from Phillips that, among the Latin and
Greek books he made his nephews and his other pupils read,
were ^Elianus Tacticus on the Art of War among the Greeks,
the Strategics or Stratagematics of Frontinus, and the Strata-
gems of Polysenus.1 But some of the terms and allusions in
the passages quoted from Paradise Lost are too minute and
technical to have come easily to a reader of military books,
if unacquainted with drill practically ; and is it likely that a
person unacquainted with drill practically would have laid such
stress on military instruction for youth, or that a person who
laid such stress on military instruction for youth would have
remained unacquainted with drill practically ? This reason-
ing becomes stronger when we look at Milton's own Tract
on Education, published not much more than a year after the
tin it- with which we are now concerned.2 Without anticipat-
ing what we shall have to say about that Tract in general,
we may here state that Milton's ideal of a high-class School
or Academy, as there propounded, is that it should, at the
utmost, consist of 120 or 130 boys or youths, all lodged
in one spacious house under one head-master, with about
20 attendants, — just a sufficient number of youths, he
explains, to form conveniently one foot company or two
horse- troops ; and he goes on to show how, in addition to a
thorough and complete course of instruction, through books,
in classical literature and in all kinds of useful scirm •< •,
» Phillipa's Memoir of Milton. I wo* published in Juno 1644.
480 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
such an academy ought to provide a perfect system both
of gymnastics for the pupils singly, and of military drill
for them collectively. "About two hours before supper," he
says, " they are, by a sudden alarum or watchword, to be called
" out to their military motions, under sky or covert according
" to the season, as was the Eoman wont : first on foot ; then,
" as their age permits, on horseback, to all the art of cavalry :
" that, having in sport, but with much exactness, and daily
" muster, served out the rudiments of their soldiership in all
" the skill of embattling, marching, encamping, fortifying,
" besieging and battering, with all the helps of ancient and
" modern stratagems, tactics, and warlike maxims, they may,
" as it were out of a long war, come forth renowned and perfect
u commanders in the service of their country." And what
would be the result ? The words in which he describes it
are very notable. " They would not then," he adds, " if
" they were trusted with fair and hopeful armies, suffer them,
" for want of just and wise discipline, to shed away from
" about them like sick feathers, though they be never so
" oft supplied ; they would not suffer their empty and
" unrecruitable colonels of twenty men in a company to quaff
" out, or convey into secret hoards, the wages of a delusive
" list, and a miserable remnant yet in the meanwhile to be
" overmastered with a score or two of drunkards, the only
" soldiery about them, or else to comply with all rapines and
" violences." The bitter allusion here evidently is to the
inefficiency of those who had held command in Essex's army,
and to other army abuses, as they had become apparent
before the Tract was published in 1644; but something of
the same feeling may well have been in Milton's mind as
it was in the minds of others, before Midsummer 1643.
But, allowing that the notion propounded of such a perfect
military drill for youth at school is to be taken as mere
sanguine theory of what might be, can we suppose that a
man would have so written, or have had such a theory, that
had never inarched or been drilled himself? In short, the
inference would be very strong that Milton knew something
of soldiering practically, even if we were to forget his all
1642-3.] WAS MILTON IN THE ARMY? 481
but positive statement, in the last of his Smectymnuan
pamphlets, that at the time of his writing that pamphlet
(i.e. in the spring of 1642, or a few months before the
breaking out of the Civil War) he was in the habit of
spending a part of each day in military exercise some-
where not far from his house in Aldersgate Street.1
The conclusion then being that Milton did know at least
a little something of soldiering, by drill and study, before the
beginning of the Civil War, the question arises, Did he serve
in any capacity, after the war began, in any portion of the
Parliamentary army ; or, if he did not so serve, what was
the cause ?
The question of fact is settled for us by Milton himself.
In his Defensio Secunda pro Popido Anglicano, published in
1654, after describing the outbreak of the war twelve years
before, and the flocking of so many of his countrymen then
into the Parliamentarian regiments, he adds these words :
" And they indeed, in such manner trusting in God, repelled
" servitude with most honourable armed exertion ; of which
" praise though I can claim no part as mine, yet I can easily
" defend myself from the charge either of timidity or of
" sloth, should any such be brought. For I did not so
" shun the labours and dangers of military service as not,
" in another fashion, both to do work for my countrymen of
" a much more useful kind, and involving no less danger,
" and to exhibit in trying circumstances a mind neither ever
" downcast, nor unduly afraid of any form of public odium,
" or even of death itself. Having from my earliest youth
" been devoted in a far more than ordinary degree to the
" higher studies (humanwribus sticdiis), and having always
" been stronger mentally than in body, I disregarded camp-
" service, in which any common soldier of more robust frame
" could easily have been my superior, and got means about
" me to the use of which I was more competent, so that I
" might in what I thought my own better and more effective
" way, or at least not inferior way, be an acquisition of iia
much momentum as possible to the needs of my country
i Seeaatf, p. 402.
VOL. II 2 I
482 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" and to this most excellent cause. My feeling therefore
" was that, if God willed that those fighting men should do
" such illustrious actions, there were yet others by whom He
" wished that these actions should be expounded and set
" forth proportionally to their worth, and the truth so
" defended by arms defended also by reason, which is the
" one and only safeguard truly and properly human." While
this passage settles the main fact, however, it leaves room
for inquiry still on some points. In the first place, it is
Milton's recollection, twelve years after the outbreak of the
Civil War, and when he had been for two years totally
blind, of the reasons that had actuated him in refraining
from military service ; and may not the reasons then assigned
have been rather those that started up in his mind as he
reflected for self-consolation on all the important non-military
work done by him in the interval than those that did
actually determine his absence in 1642 from the musters
of the Parliamentarian Army ? In the second place, con-
clusive though the passage is as to the fact of his absence
from those musters after they were in the field, the specula-
tion is not absolutely foreclosed that he did attend some of
them tentatively at first, and had to resist offers that would
have made a soldier of him for a longer period.
In connexion with this last speculation there is a
remarkable statement by Edward Phillips in his Life of his
uncle. " I am much mistaken," says Phillips, " if there
" were not about this time a design in agitation of making
" him Adjutant-General in Sir William Waller's army."
Phillips seems to have had rather a hazy recollection of
the date of this scheme ; but, if there ever was such a
scheme, it must have been before the spring of 1645,—
after which Sir Willaim Waller had no army, and no com-
mand in any one else's army.1 Nay, if there was such a
1 Phillips distinctly adds, " But the Army," to be spoken of hereafter, was
" new modelling of the army, soon fol- in February 1644-5 ; and Sir William
lowing, proved an obstruction to that Waller, with Essex and others, resigned
design ; and Sir William, his commis- his commission after the passing of the
sion being laid down, began, as the " Self -Denying Ordinance " in the next
common saying is, to turn cat in nan." month or the next* .
The famous "New-modelling of the
1642-3.] WAS MILTON IN THE TRAINED BANDS? 483
scheme for bringing in Milton in any army-post under Sir
William Waller, no time was more likely than that very
month of June 1643 to which we have just brought down
the narrative of the war. Waller was then at his highest in
reputation, — called "William the Conqueror," and looked upon
as the proper man to supersede Essex. He had, in fact, just
received a commission from Parliament to take the chief
command of a separate army to be sent at once into the
south-west to cope with the Marquis of Hertford and the
victorious Hopton.1 He alone, it was thought, could retrieve
affairs in that region, and his commission was couched in
such terms that Essex afterwards complained of it as deroga-
tory to his dignity, and inconsistent with his supremacy.2
Either then, when Waller set out with this new army (June
1643), or afterwards when he was in the field with it, it may
have occurred to some that it would be well to have on his
staff a few staunch men of as thoroughgoing principles as
himself. But, whatever amount of probability this casts
on Phillips's vague reminiscence, the exact form of it is
hardly credible. The duties of the Adjutant to a single
regiment require highly-trained proficiency ; and the Adju-
tant-General of a whole army ought to be about the most
experienced man in it. To have thought of taking Milton
out of his house in Aldersgate Street and making him
Adjutant-General to Sir William Waller's army would, there-
fore, have implied either that Milton's friends knew of
qualifications of his in the way of prior training of which
all record has now perished, or that they had a most marvel-
lous faith in what a man might be fit for after a few months
of drill under Skippon, aided by readings in ^lianus, Poly-
renuR, and Frontinus. On the whole, Phillips's recollection
seems credible only to this extent, that some time or other
in 1643 or 1644 there may have been a talk among some
about the desirableness of bringing Milton into the army,
and that Sir William Waller's branch of the army may have
been named as the likeliest to suit him. Phillips puts his
recollection rather positively ; and, though he may have con-
1 riar. j.p. 399-401. * In Oct. 1643: see Parl. Il>t. III. 177.
484 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
fused particulars, he is not likely to have been altogether
wrong about such a fact in his uncle's life.
For ourselves, we should have sought for Milton in the
Parliamentary Army -Lists in some much lower post, to
begin with at least, than that of Adjutant-General to any
chief commander. Nay, we have sought for him in these
Army-Lists. We even thought we had found him : — The
reader remembers the Six Eegiments of the Trained Bands
of the City of London, and especially the so-called Second
or White Kegiment, the Colonel of which was Alderman
Isaac Pennington, one of the M.P.'s for the City, and
(since Oct. 1642) Lord Mayor in the Parliamentary interest.
We have already (ante, p. 446) given an account of the
state of that regiment, nearly 1,200 strong, and of the
way in which it was officered towards the close of 1642,
and probably before the famous march of the Trained
Bands to Turnham Green. But we reserved one or two
particulars. In the contemporary printed fly-sheet from
which we quoted the names of the chief officers, — ISAAC
PENNINGTON, the Colonel ("the usurper-mayor," I find him
styled in the ill-natured Eoyalist MS. of 1643 to which I
have referred as making game of the Trained Bands) ; GEORGE
LANGHAM, the Lieutenant- Colonel ; and EGBERT DA VIES, the
Major (" a slopmaker for seamen near Billingsgate," the MS.
spitefully informs us), — in addition to these names we have
the names of the five captains and of all the other officers
down to the ensigns. The names of the five Captains may
here be given. They were — Thomas Chamberlaine (" a mer-
chant, living near London Wall "), Thomas Player (" a hosier,
living in New Fish Street Hill "), Edmund Harvey, Chris-
topher Whichcot (" a merchant "), and Faith G-ooday, styled
" the Colonel's Captain." The names of the Lieutenants and
Ensigns the reader need not be troubled with, save that
he may be interested in knowing that one of the Lieutenants
was a "Timothy Crusoe." But the Quartermaster of a regiment
takes rank now, and seems even more to have taken rank
then, as just superior to ordinary lieutenants. Who held
this post in the Second or White City Eegiment ? " JOHN
1642-3.] MILTON NOT IN THE AKMY. 485
MKI.ION is Q n n rt' rni aster to Colonel Pennington" are the
words in the fly-sheet which is my authority. This seemed
decisive. Milton, as we shall find, in his later life, knew
Pennington intimately ; the post of Quartermaster-Lieutenant
in Pennington's city-regiment was, in respect of rank, just
about the post into which we should have expected Milton to
step in the natural course of things, — unless, indeed, they
had made a Captain of him at once. True, the duties of a
Quartermaster, — seeing after beer and bread -and-cheese for
the men when they are out on march, choosing ground and
quarters for them when they are to camp, and taking care
of all sorts of camp-accommodations, — are not the duties
that we should fancy most to Milton's taste. But, in real
service, they are most important duties, and a man who had
been a good Quartermaster for a little time would find him-
self appreciated and be in training for higher posts. If this
Quartermaster in Colonel Pennington's regiment, therefore,
had been our poet Milton, I should not have been surprised.
Almost certainly, however, he was a different person. That
his name was " John Milton " I have not the least doubt :
the spelling " Melton " is nothing, and happens more than
once in the poet's family. But there were several John
Miltons in London, besides the poet, about the year 1642 ;
and the Quartermaster in Pennington's City-Regiment in
that year is most likely, I think, to have been a " John
Milton " of whom we hear as then an active parishioner
of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, whom annals of that parish
actually speak of as then or shortly afterwards " probably a
Captain of the City Trained Bands," and whose signatures
are found in the registers of that parish as late as 1650
ami 1660, when he styles himself " Major John Milton."
These signatures have been facsimiled ; they are those of a
well-educated man : and, what is most singular, they rather
resemble the writing of the poet It is possible that this
namesake of the poet may also have been a relative.1
1 See facsimiles of thisJohn Milton's n brief :i]>]*< ixlcd account <>f tin-
.res in Mr. Loitfh Sotheby's (\>. l-'U). derived partly from published
/ ' St. DuuBtan's Parish l-y
/ plateatp.124 ; with it« Rector, the Rev. T. H. Murr.v. whi,
486 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Even if we should have had to conclude that the " Quarter-
master John Milton " of Colonel Pennington's Eegiment of
City Trained Bands was undoubtedly the poet, we should
have had to report that the appointment was but momentary,
and that at no time from the actual commencement of the
war was Milton out with the Parliamentarian army. I am
sorry that such was the fact, and cannot quite account for it.
Milton was bound, I think, if any man in England was
bound, to be in the Parliamentary army. Cromwell had
become a captain of horse at the age of forty-three ; why
should not Milton too, at the age of thirty-four, have become
an army -officer? I believe there is some unascertained
reason why he did not do so, and that the reason is not
merely that he still preferred the Muses to Mars as that god
had now appeared. Had he not, at the bidding of duty,
forsworn the finer muses for a time, and postponed his poetic
plans to become a prose pamphleteer ? Was pamphleteering
such congenial work, or work of such mighty efficacy, as to
be preferred by a man of mettle to great camping out of
doors, and moonlight marching along country roads, and
strange siegings of strong places, and the sensation of the
first battle-Hash from the enemy's cannon on the hill, and
the whole plain thenceforward astir, and, as the line
advanced, the rising thunder of some conquering psalm ?
If I know Milton, such was not his thought. Why he was
not in the army of the Parliament remains, therefore, some-
what of a mystery. As he was always a rather haughty
man, of fastidious habits, and knowing what was due to him,
quartermastering or the like in a city -regiment, under
" merchants," " hosiers," and " slopsellers for seamen," may
not have been the kind of soldiering to his taste, and he
may have waited for some offer or solicitation, like that
which his nephew hints at in his story of the Adjutancy-
General under Sir William Waller, but which never came.
The proof positive that Milton was not in the Parliamentary
died in 1860, and partly from Mr. mistake a signature of the St. Dunstan's
Sotheby's inspection of the parish parishioner, met with in certain circum-
registers. A person not well acquainted stances, for that of the poet,
with the poet's autograph might easily
1642-3.] MILTON'S TURNHAM GREEN SON MI 487
army is furnished by his own hand : — The reader remembers
the famous march of the Londoners to Turnham Green on
the 12th and 13th of November, when the King, advancing
unexpectedly from Colnbrook, had taken possession of Brent-
ford, and seemed bent, with Rupert, on an immediate assault
on London. After the Battle of Edgehill and skirmishes
here and there in the provinces, this threatened assault of
London was the first real incident of the war. It was the
first, at any rate, that brought a full sense of the war to
the hearths of the Londoners. Well, of that great marching
multitude which London sent out on the western road by
Kensington and Hammersmith, as far as Turnham Green,
to fight the King if necessary, and drive him back out of
Brentford, Milton was not one. He was not one of the
" brave boys " to whom Skippon addressed his pithy speeches
on the march ; he was not one of those who, after the King
had retired and the danger was over, enjoyed the Sunday's
picnic of triumph on Turnham Green. The other " John
Milton," the parishioner of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, was
probably there ; but the Milton of Aldersgate Street was
not He remained in his house in Aldersgate Street, to
take the chances of the assault should Essex and Skippon
not be able to arrest the King's approach. And what was
he doing there ? Among other things he wrote a Sonnet.
It is as follows : —
When the Assault was intended to the City.
Captain, or Colonel, or Knight in arms,
Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,
If deed of honour did thee ever please,
Guard them, and him within protect from harms.
He can requite thee ; for he knows the charms
That call fame on such gentle acts as these,
And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas.
Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms.
Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower :
The great Emathian conqueror bid span-
The house of Pindarus when temple and tower
Went to the ground ; and the repeated air
Of sad Electra's poet had the power
To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.
488 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
The copy of this Sonnet in the volume of Milton MSS. in
Trinity College, Cambridge, is not in Milton's own hand, but
is a fair copy in another hand, made for the press in 1645,
when it was first printed. The heading of the Sonnet there,
in the same hand, is " On his Door when the City expected an
Assault " ; but this heading has a line drawn through it, and
the title given above is substituted in Milton's own hand.
Did Milton actually nail up, or paste up, such a thing as
this outside his door in Aldersgate Street, on the 12th or
13th of November 1642, and himself remain withiri-doors
to take the benefit ? One has to fancy some mood of jest,
or of semi-jest, in the whole affair, — the Sonnet composed
in mere whim, or in answer to the banter of some neighbours
who had challenged him to it. Jest or no jest, if Eupert
and his Cavaliers had come into London, and made their
way to Aldersgate Street, and up the entry there where
Milton's garden-house stood, the Sonnet, we fear, would not
have been very protective. How was an ordinary Cavalier
Captain to know that " the great Emathian Conqueror " was
Alexander the Great, and that " sad Electra's poet " was
Euripides ? Or, if he did, was he likely to be moved by the
reasoning that, because Alexander, at the sack of Thebes,
had ordered the house and family of the long- dead poet
Pindar to be spared, and because the casual repetition of
some lines from Euripides at a banquet, when the
Lacedaemonians proposed to destroy Athens, saved the city
from that doom, therefore lie was not to break open this
door in Aldersgate Street to see what could be got ? And,
if the door had been broken open, for the sake of a look
at the self-proclaimed poet, what if any copies of Milton's
Anti-Episcopal pamphlets had been left lying about inad-
vertently ? " 0 ho ! " the Cavalier Captain might then have
said : " Pindar and Euripides are all very well, by G — ! I've
been at college myself; and, when I meet a gentleman and
scholar, I hope I know how to treat him; but neither
Pindar nor Euripides ever wrote pamphlets against the
Church of England, by G — ! "
April 1643.] MILTON AND THE SIEGE OF READING.
The war having rolled away from London, Milton sat on
untroubled in his house in Aldersgate Street through the
winter of 1642-3 and the spring of 1643. The teaching
of his nephews, his own readings and studies, and the
observation of the events of the war as they passed round
him at a distance, are his only known occupations.
Interested as he was, on public grounds, in every event of
the war, there was one in which he must have had a private
and peculiar interest. This was the twelve days' siege of
Reading by Lord Essex (April 15 — 27, 1643).
After Milton had taken up his residence in London, his
father and his brother Christopher had continued to make
Horton their head-quarters. Christopher's law-studies having
been concluded, he was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple
on the 26th of January 1639-40 *; and, on the llth of
August 1640, I find this entry among the Baptisms in the
Registers of Horton Parish : " Sarah, ye daughter of Chris-
topher and Thomasin Milton." • As late as this last date,
accordingly, there was still a small Milton household at
Horton, consisting of the widowed scrivener, his son
Christopher and that son's wife, and now a little daughter
born to this young couple in place of their lost first-born
of the year before, and called after her dead grandmother
that lay under the flags in the old church near.
For some reason or other, however, Christopher and his
father did not remain much longer at Horton. There is no
trace of the Milton household in that quiet Buckingham-
shire parish beyond the year 1640. Before the end of that
year, or at all events in the next year, they removed from
the place on which their residence has conferred so many
associations. What may have determined their choice of
another place cannot be ascertained ; but the place actually
chosen was Reading. In the Registers of the parish of
St. Laurence, Reading, there is the record of the baptism,
Aug. 27, 1 641, of " Anne, daughter of — Milton, Esq." This
- Milton, Esq.," was, in all probability, our Christopher
Milton, and the " Anne " a child born to him at Reading
i Note from tin- I. ,.„•.• Temple l»ook«. * My note* from the Register.
490 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
twelve months after the above-named " Sarah," who had been
born at Horton.1 At all events the Horton household had
about that time removed to Eeading. It is in the adjacent
county of Berks, about twenty miles farther from London
than Horton is, and nearer Oxford.
When, therefore, Beading was besieged by the Parliamen-
tarians in April 1643, Milton's father, and his brother, with
the young wife and one or two children, were among the
inhabitants shut up in it and exposed to the risks. Chris-
topher Milton, who had not adopted his brother's political
principles, but had cast in his lot, as a young lawyer, with
the Royalists, was nominally the Reading householder, and his
father was ostensibly boarding with him, though doubtless
supplying most of the money. The siege, therefore, must
have been a matter of a fortnight's anxiety to Milton in
Aldersgate Street ; and he must have been glad when it was
over, and no harm done to his kindred. By the Articles on
which Colonel Fielding surrendered the place to Essex, it was
provided that the inhabitants of the town " should not be
" prejudiced in their estates or persons, either by plunder-
" ing or imprisonment, and that they who could leave the
" town might have free leave and passage safely to go to
" what place they would, with their goods, within the space
" of six weeks after the surrender." 2
Christopher Milton, though his affairs must have been
dissettled considerably by the siege and surrender, does not
seem to have left the place immediately, but to have
remained in it for some brief time at least, to take his
further chances as a confessed Royalist. It was obviously
undesirable, however, that old Mr. Milton, who was probably
more of his elder son's way of thinking in politics, should
run the hazards and undergo the discomfort of living
longer on the frontier between Essex's army and the King's,
where there might be more disturbances and more sieges.
He, accordingly, did take the benefit of the Article enabling
1 I owe the discovery of this baptism Christopher Milton's residence there,
entry to the kindness of my friend, Mr. He was indefatigable, and searched, I
Theodore Waterhouse, M.A., London, believe, all the parish registers, before
who, being frequently in Reading, coming on this entry,
searched, at my request, for traces of 2 Clarendon, 385.
May 1643.] MILTON'S MARRIAGE. 491
him to shift his quarters. " His [Miltou's] father," says
Phillips, "who, till the taking of Reading by the Earl of
" Essex his forces, had lived with his other son at his house
" there, was, upon that son's dissettlement, necessitated to
" betake himself to this his eldest son."
If the old gentleman left Heading within the six weeks
allowed by the Articles, he ought to have been with his
son in Aldersgate Street, at latest, in the first or second
week of June. In fact, however, he did not arrive at the
house in Aldersgate Street till rather late in the summer
of 1643. Extraordinary things, he then found, had
occurred in the house before his arrival. There had been
a wife in it, with a bevy of her sisters and bridesmaids ;
and, after a flutter of silks and muslins through every room
in it, they had all vanished again, leaving John a married
man certainly, but in a state of bewilderment as to the
amount of his claim to that character.
" About Whitsuntide it was, or a little after," says Phillips
in his Memoir of Milton, "that he took a journey into the
" country, nobody about him certainly knowing the reason,
" or that it was any more than a journey of recreation. After
" a month's stay, home he returns a married man that went
" out a bachelor : his wife being Mary, the eldest daughter
" of Mr. Kichard Powell, then a Justice of Peace, of Forest-
" hill, near Shotover, in Oxfordshire." This is very succinct ;
and we must try to fill in the details.
The reader will be so good as to go back with me to a spot
of the English South-Midlands to which there was occasion
to introduce him in the very beginning of this Biography,
though we have not had much to do with it since : viz. the
tract of country lying in the Hundred of Bullington in
Oxfordshire, immediately to the east of Oxford city. It was
in that tract of rich and pleasantly- wooded country, close to
Oxford, that we sought for the traces of Milton's paternal
ancestry. Walking, as we were directed, from Oxford, over
Shotnvn- Hill and the ground of the old Forest of Shotover,
we found ourselves amid a group of villages straggling along
492 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
the cross roads for a space of five or six miles, and none of
them more than that distance from the University city.
Wheatley, Halton, Forest Hill, Stanton St. John's, Elsfield,
and Beckley were the principal villages of the group. Search-
ing among those villages for traces of Miltons living there,
we came upon them plentifully enough. We found Miltons
in Beckley, Miltons in Elsfield ; above all, Miltons in
Stanton St. John's. These Miltons of Stanton St. John's,
— related, doubtless, to the other Miltons round about
them, — turned out to be the poet's immediate progenitors.
A Henry Milton, husbandman of Stanton St. John's,
whose homely Eoman Catholic will we found, dated 1558,
and whose widow, Agnes Milton, survived him two years,
turned out to be the poet's great-grandfather ; and one
of the sons of this pair, a " Kichard Milton of Stanton St.
John's, yeoman," heard of in documents as the most sub-
stantial man of his name in all Oxfordshire, and as a resolute
adherent to the Koman Catholic faith, was the poet's grand-
father, and was alive certainly as late as 1601, — by which
time his son, John Milton, the poet's father, whom he is said to
have cast off for becoming Protestant, had set up as a London
citizen and scrivener in Bread Street, and a married man.1
Notwithstanding the rupture with his father, the staunch
Eoman Catholic yeoman of Stanton St. John's, it is not likely
that the London scrivener's connexions with his native
Oxfordshire had been totally severed. Though nothing may
have come to him of his father's property, and though his
ties with Oxfordshire were so far loosened that, when he sent
his son to the University, it was to Cambridge and not to
Oxford, he is likely enough to have kept up some correspond-
ence with his Oxfordshire kindred. He may have visited
his old home occasionally, and so have been led into business
transactions with families in that neighbourhood. With one
such family, at all events, he did have business transactions.
This was a family of the name of Powell, living at Forest
Hill, less than a mile from Stanton St. John's, and about
four miles from Oxford. What we know of this family
is as follows : — The head of it was " Eichard Powell of
1 See Vol. I. pp. 13—22.
May 1643.] Till: POWELLS OF FOREST HILL. 493
Forest Hill, Esq., and Justice of Peace for the county
of Oxford," who had married Ann Moulton, daughter of
" Robert Moulton of Honyborne in the county of Wor-
cester, gentleman." The mother of this Ann Moulton
was an Archdale, — one of a numerous family of Archdales,
originally from Stafford, who had acquired property at
aley and elsewhere in Oxfordshire.1 It seems to have
been in consequence of this relationship to the Archdales
through his wife, Ann Moulton, that Kichard Powell, whose
native county was not Oxford, was brought into that county.2
At their marriage, the date of which is not ascertained, but
must have been before 1621, his wife brought him a portion
of 3,000/. ; and from 1621 onwards he is heard of as estab-
lished in Oxfordshire and, on his own account or through
his wife, a person of some note there. He had some freehold
property; in land, cottages, and tithes, at Wheatley ; but his
chief estate was Forest Hill, the manor and appurtenances of
which he had purchased from Edmund Brome, Esq., by a
deed dated Oct. 2, 1621, on lease for a term of twenty years.
The lease was subsequently extended for an additional term
of thirty-one years, or till the year 1672, by another deed
executed between him and Brome, July 21, 1623, one of the
conditions of which was the payment of a yearly nominal
chief-rent.8 Thus resident possessor, though not actual pro-
prietor, of the mansion-house and estate of Forest Hill, he
1 Archdale Pedigree in Harl. MS. afterwards of Forest Hill, was married,
1476 (Visitation of London in 1634), f. Feb. 24, 1605-6, to William (Edward < )
368. See also Hunter's Milton Glean- Jones of Sandford. The Rev. Mr.
ings, p. 33. "The Archdales in all pro- Wyatt, who gave me this information,
'bability were possessed of the old tells me that she lived till An
'mansion not far from the centre of and that he possesses a small volume
' Wheatley village, about 1 A miles from containing many MS. notes believed to
' Forest Hill : on the eastern part of it be in her hand. The Oxford Antiquary
' there is the date 1605, and the initials I >r. Bliss, at the sale of whoso library
" TAAA." So I am informed by the in 1858 the volume was purchased l>v
Rev. C. F. Wyatt, M.A., Vicar of Mr. Wyatt, had written in it. "Tin-
Forest Hill. book I -n-j.i-ri to have belonged to. :n,<l
a There was, however, an Oxfordshire to IK- tilled with notes by, Mary Jones,
family of Powells, long in possession late Powell, the aunt of Milton's first
of the manor of Snmli'onl. -<,mo four wife."
miles distant from Forest Hill : and it * There are, I am informed, many
has been supposed, though not proved, i-ntrir-. m the l-Wrst Hill Hapti>mal
.ere was some link of kin In tween Register, of children of this Kdmund
the Forest Hill Powells and these older Brome, IWi-H's predecessor in the
Powells of Sun.lfonl. A "Mary Powell," estate. He was dead in 1628 ; in whi. h
born July 27, 1584, and believed to year his will was proved by I:
have been a sisU r ..f |;i< -hard Powell, Powell as his Hole executor.
494 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
came to be known among his country neighbours as Kichard
Powell of Forest Hill, Esquire. It was the more necessary
to distinguish him as Squire Powell because there was
another Powell in the parish, named Thomas Powell, who
may possibly have been a relative, but rather appears to have
been a parishioner of much humbler circumstances than his
namesake of the mansion-house and estate.1 Documents
exist from which it may be calculated that the Forest Hill
estate and mansion-house were worth over 270/. a year ; and,
as the Wheatley property was valued at 40/. a year, Mr.
Powell's position among his neighbours will be indicated by
saying that he was a gentleman worth at least 310/. a year —
equivalent, say, to 1,200/. a year at the present day. There
is reason to believe, however, that this would be an under-
estimate of his wealth when his fortunes were at the highest.
For he seems to have had other properties and resources,
to have lived in some style, and to have been of a rather
speculative turn in business.
Mr. Powell, and his wife, Ann Moulton, had been about
six years in possession of Forest Hill, and several of their
children had been born, when there was that business trans-
action between Milton's father and the Powell family to
which we have referred. It is all the more interesting
because the poet himself is expressly implicated in it. The
date of the transaction is June 11, 1627 ; at which time the
poet was a youth of eighteen years, and in the third year of
1 The Forest Hill Parish Registers family of Powells in Forest Hill distinct
record the baptism of Frances, a daugh- from the Powells of the mansion-house,
ter of this Thomas Powell, on the 21st but contemporary with them. In most
of May 1620 ; the baptism of twin of the entries in the Registers relating
daughters of his, Ann Powell and to the Squire's family he is carefully
Marian Powell, Sept. 26, 1621, and the styled "Mr. Powell," or "Mr. Richard
burial of the second of these twins two Powell," or "Richard Powell, gent.,"
days afterwards ; the baptism of a son or "Mr. Richard Powell, Esq. "; whereas
of the same Thomas Powell, named the other Powell invariably appears as
William, June 30, 1624 ; then, after an plain "Thomas." This rather discoun-
interval of fifteen years, the burial of tenances the idea that they were rela-
" Thomas Powell" himself, March 27, tives. At all events, they cannot have
1641. A later entry stands thus :" The been brothers: else "the mother of
mother of Thomas Powell was buried Thomas Powell " would have been also
June 2, 1642 " ; and it is possible that a the Squire's mother, and would have
still later entry — " . . . Powell widdow been distinguished as such in her burial
was buryed Ffeb. 12, 1651 "—may refer entry.— For the extracts from the Regis-
to the widow of the same Thomas. ters I am indebted to the Rev. C. F.
These entries prove the existence of a Wyatt, M.A., Vicar of Forest Hill.
May 1643.] THE POWELLS OF FOREST HILL. 495
his course at the University of Cambridge. On that day, it
appears, Richard Powell of Forest Hill in the county of
Oxford, gent., and William Herne, citizen and goldsmith of
London, did, " by their writing or recognizance of the nature
of a statute-staple ", — which deed was executed before Sir
Nicholas Hyde, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench at
Westminster, — " acknowledge themselves to owe unto John
" Milton, then of the University of Cambridge, gentleman, son
" of John Milton, citizen and scrivener of London, the sum of
" 500/. of lawful money of England " ; there being executed,
however, at the same time, another deed or writing, whereby
the scrivener, acting on behalf of his son, " defeazanced " the
said obligation (i.e. consented that it should be null) on the
payment to his son, or his executors, administrators, and
assigns, of a sum of 312/. on the 12th of December then next
ensuing. The meaning of the transaction, so far as I can
interpret the old law-terms, is substantially this : — Mr.
Powell owed to the Mil tons, on some account or other
(whether for money borrowed or otherwise does not appear,
nor whether the debt was directly to the son or only to him
by transfer from the father J), a sum equal, in immediate pay-
ment, to 312/. or thereabouts. In acknowledgment of this
debt, Mr. Powell gave a recognizance for 500/., in the peculiar
legal form known as " statute-staple," 2 —taking the customary
precaution, however, of seeing another deed executed, by
which, if he paid the real debt of 312/. within six months,
the recognizance for the 500/. should be void. Such pay-
ment, we have to repeat, was not made, or was made only in
part ; and, consequently, from the 12th of December 1627,
Mr. Powell of Forest Hill had been a debtor, or, as the law
called it, " cognisor," to Milton for a considerable sum. The
peculiar advantage to a creditor who was a " cognisee," or
creditor by the form of recognizance, was that his claim took
1 Can any of the property of the to Mr. Powoll, ami hence the reoog-
old Roman Catholic yeoman, Richard nizance.
Milton of Stanton St. John's, have * So called because it had originally
come, by will or otherwise, to his been a form, not of common law, but
grandson John in his own right ? If of the law of specially mercantile trans-
so, and the property were near Forest actions, as administered by an nnoitot
lltli. there may have been a sale of it court called
.n .>f EfUpIt,
496 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
precedence of other claims upon the lands and goods of his
debtor, and that, by a prescribed process, he might obtain
delivery of those lands and goods into his possession till the
debt were satisfied. It is a fact, therefore, in the life of
Milton, kept in reserve by us till now, that, from the begin-
ning of his fourth year at Cambridge, when he had just
entered on the twentieth year of his age, he had had a legal
claim, to the extent of some hundreds of pounds, on the
lands and goods of Richard Powell, Esq., of Forest Hill and
Wheatley in Oxfordshire.1
Why, in the course of the sixteen years that had elapsed
since 1627, the claim had not been discharged, nor measures
taken by Milton or his father to secure its discharge, is a
question to which, with the information we have, there can
be no definite answer. In all probability the state of Mr.
Powell's affairs during those sixteen years had not been such
as to make payment of the debt convenient. There are on
record, at all events, various instances in which Mr. Powell
appears, during those sixteen years, as a borrower of other
moneys. On the 10th of January 1631, he borrowed from
one Edward Ashworth a sum of 40 O/., giving him as security
a lease for ninety-nine years of part of his Wheatley pro-
perty. Again, on the 30th of June 1640, we find that, being
then already in debt, for 300/. of money borrowed, to
his friend Sir Robert Pye, Knt. (afterwards member for
Woodstock in the Long Parliament, and eminent as a Par-
liamentarian), arid Sir Robert having again assisted him at
a pinch by redeeming with 1,000/. a lease which had been
forfeited to another creditor, named George Furseman, Mr.
Powell acknowledged this double debt, with 100/. of con-
1 The authorities for the statements Milton," published in 1859 by the
in this paragraph, and for some of those Camden Society. The Powell Family
in the paragraph preceding, are a long papers form an Appendix of sixty pages
series of legal documents about the (pp. 75 — 134) to that volume. For veri-
Powell Estate (to which further refer- fication of the particulars in the text
ence will have to be made in the hitherto, see especially Documents
sequel), printed in part by Todd in his III., XV., XVI., and XXVII. of that
account of the Life of Milton (Milton's Appendix ; also Todd ut supra, pp. 52 —
Poetical Works by Todd: ed. 1852: 54. The originals of the Papers, so
Vol. I. pp. 44—60), but for the first quoted in part by Todd, and fully by
time completely by Mr. W. Douglas Hamilton, are among the "Composi-
Hamilton in his " Original Papers illus- tion Papers of Royalists," preserved in
trative of the Life and Writings of John the State Paper Office.
May 1643.] THE POWELLS OF FOREST HILL. 497
sideration for the advance, by mortgaging to Sir Robert his
mansion and manor of Forest Hill for a sum of 1,400/.,
the mortgage to be void if 1,510/. were paid to Sir Robert
on July 1, 1641. Not only was no such payment made, but,
on the 18th of December 1641, we find Mr. Powell again a
borrower of 300/., — this time from Sir Edward Powell, Bart,
(probably a relative) ; to whom he assigned in consequence
a twenty-one years' lease of certain lands in Wheatley.1
As a set-ott' against these awkward-looking transactions,
take two glimpses of the Powells in their more public re-
spectability as a county family. (1) One naturally looks for
them in the Visitation of Oxfordshire in 1634 by John
Philipot, Somerset Herald, and William Tyler, Blue Mantle,
pursuivant of arms. Had they been there, we should have
had their arms and pedigree along with the arms and pedi-
grees of all the other important Oxfordshire families. We
might in that case have known more of their connexions
and circumstances than we do. Their absence from that
Heralds' Visitation, however, though a little unfortunate for
us, does not militate against their social rank. For, in the
Visitation Books, there is this note, distinctly explaining it :
" Memorandum : that Richd. Powell of Forest Hill in com.
" Oxford, Justice of ye peace in com. supradict., being upon
" business in that quality when he should have appeared at
" Oxford, sent ye King of Arms' fees, desiring respit to
" perfect those matters that concern his arms and descent
" at the Heralds' office in Michaelmas term next ; which
" was granted at Thame, 2 1 Aug. 1634." 2 (2) Confirming the
impression thus received of Mr. Powell's rank among the
Oxfordshire squires, and also verifying our hint that he
was of a speculative turn, are records of a bargain of his
in 1636 and 1637 respecting the coppices, or young planta-
tions, of Shotover Forest and Stow Wood. The reader may
here remember the tradition, through Aubrey and Wood,
that Richard Milton, the poet's grandfather, and his ances-
tors before him, had been under-rangers or keepers of this
1 For authentication of the particu- XVIII.. \\.. u. I XVII. , in Appendix.
this paragraph, nee Hamilton's lion "f Ox
..ors: chiefly document* fordahire, ItWi), f. 111.
VOL. II. - K
498 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
royal forest.1 If so, they had probably been more efficient
in their duty than their successors were. For the coppices,
it appears, had since their time " been much spoiled and
" decayed, and many of the stems and stowells dead and
" worn out, so that in truth they did not bear the name of
" coppices, but were generally very thin and mean shere-
" wood, and had of late years received much detriment by
" reason of ill fences and the daily trespasses of the keepers,
" and by the fall of trees and other abuses." Such had been
the damage, indeed, that it was thought it would take eight
or ten years at least to bring the coppices round again into
a paying condition, and meanwhile there would be a great
charge in repairing fences and the like. Dr. Bancroft, then
Bishop of Oxford, had had his attention called to the sub-
ject through the fact that, having been building at his own
expense a fine episcopal residence at Cuddesdon, close to the
Forest, he had received permission to take a fixed quantity
of timber from it. Accordingly, the Bishop, and Dr. Duppa,
then Dean of Christchurch, with one or two other Oxford
Doctors of Divinity, having taken counsel together, and with
Mr. Powell of Forest Hill (who, indeed, may have been the
prime mover in the affair), representations were made to
his Majesty, and indentures were drawn out to this effect :
The Bishop and his successors in office were to have a lease
of the said coppices for sixty years, paying no rent for the
first ten years, but an annual rent to the Crown of 100/.
afterwards ; and Mr. Powell was to have a sublease for fifty-
nine years under the Bishop, paying no rent for the first
ten years, but paying afterwards not only the main rent of
100/. to the King, but also 1001. a year to the Bishop. The
bargain was settled in two indentures, one dated July 8,
1 6 3 6, and the other March 3 0, 1 6 3 7.2 Part of Mr. Powell's
1 Vol. I. pp. 8—10 and 19—20.
2 Mr. Powell had had earlier business
transactions with Bishop Bancroft.
' From a document in the Diocesan
' Registry at Oxford it would appear
' that Richard Powell of Forest Hill
' in the county of Oxford, Esquire,
' church (Principal of Hart Hall), were
' witnesses in the chancel of Cuddes-
' don to the confirmation of John
' (Bancroft), Bishop of Oxford, as to
' the holding of Cuddesdon i\
^n com-
' mendam, vacant by the death of
< Edmund Underbill, Feb. 27, 1632."
' and Thomas lies, Professor of Di- —Note to me from the Rev. C. F.
' vinity, and Prebendary of Christ- Wyatt, of Forest Hill.
May 1643.] THE POWELLS OF FOREST HILL, 499
occupations, therefore, from 1636 onwards must have been
looking after all the coppices or growing wood of Shotover
Forest, so that in due course he might make something of
his investment. The large trees or timber trees were not
included in the bargain.1
Before the outbreak of the Civil War, therefore, we can see
th< Powell family, distinctly enough, as an Oxfordshire family
of good standing, keeping up appearances with the neighbour-
gentry, and probably more than solvent if all their property
had been put against their debts, but still rather deeply in
debt, and their property heavily mortgaged. There were
then twelve or thirteen of the family in all, — Mr. Powell
himself and his wife Ann (nte Moulton), and ten or eleven
children. Here, from the Parish Registers of Forest Hill, are
the names of all the children in their order, and the dates
of their baptisms : —
(1.) "Richardus Powell, filius Richardi Powell, gen., baptizatus
fuit X° die Junii ao pdicto" [sc. 1621].
(2.) "Jacobus, filius Richardi Powell, gen., et Annae, uxoris ejus,
baptizatus fuit quinto die Octobris, 1623."
(3.) " Marie Powell, the daughter of Richard Powell, baptized the
XXIVth day of Januarie, 1625."
(4.) " Zara, the daughter of Mr. Richard Powell, was baptized the
XXVth of September, 1627."
(5.) " Mrs. Ann [originally written Mary by mistake, and corrected
thus quaintly, in order, probably, to save the initial M.] Powell,
the daughter of Mr. Richard Powell of Forest Hill, gent., was
christned June the 18th, 1626" [clearly 1626 in the Register;
but is it a mistake for 1628 ?].
(6.) " Mr. John Powell, the sonne of Mr. Richard Powell, of Forrest
Hill, gent., was baptized November 8th, 1629."
(7.) " Mr. William Powell, ye sonne of Mr. Richard Powell, gent.,
was baptized March ye 1, 1630."
(8.) " Mr. Archdale Powell, the sonne of Mr. Richard Powell, was
baptized Aprill the 25th, 1633."
(9.) "Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Richard Powell, Esqr., was
baptized ye 15th June, 1635."
(10.) "George Powell, ye son of Mr. Richard Powell, Esqr., was
baptized January the 16th, 1636."
(11.) "Elizabeth Powell, ye daughter of Mr. Powell, Esqr., was
baptized the 22 day of Aprill, 1639." 2
1 Hunter's Milton Gleanings, pp. 29 2 These extract* from the Parish
Registers m I 1 1 ill have been most
500 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Of the six sons in this list, the eldest, Eichard, who was
twenty-one years of age when the Civil War began, and the
second, James, who was then nearly nineteen, had been for
some time matriculated in Oxford University as students
of Christchurch.1 As it was but an hour's walk between
Oxford and Forest Hill, the two young men, even after they
became Oxonians, were probably as much at home as in
college, so that the Forest Hill mansion-house had to
accommodate a large family, of all ages from babyhood
upwards. The house no longer exists ; but any one
interested in Milton may visit the site where it stood, just
off the high-road, on the left hand if you have started from
Oxford, near the pretty church and vicarage of Forest Hill,
lying quietly on their steepish slope, and with the village
nestling higher and lower behind. Moreover, there are
records which enable us to fancy what kind of a house it
was, to count its rooms, name them as they were named
by the family while they lived in it, and even judge of
their furnishing. There was " the hall " ; there were " the
great parlour," " the little parlour," " the matted chamber,"
" the chamber over the hall," " the chamber over the little
parlour," " the two little chambers over the kitchen," " the
little chamber over the pantry," " the study or boys' cham-
ber," " Mrs. Powell's chamber," " Mrs. Powell's closet," " the
courteously furnished me, with other l In a note at p. 127 of the Life of
information, all in most exact form, by Anthony Wood, published in 1848, as
the present Vicar of Forest Hill, the the first volume of an intended reissue
Rev. C. F. Wyatt, M.A.— It will be of Wood's Athene? Oxonienses by the
noted that there are two Elizabeths in Ecclesiastical History Society, the
the list (Nos. 9 and 11). There are editor, Dr. Bliss, gives the matricula-
instances of two children of the same tion entries of the two young Powells
name, both surviving, in one family ; from the University Register, as fol-
but it is likely that the first of these lows:— "1636. Mar. 10. ^Edes Christi,
Elizabeths died in infancy, and was Thomas Powell, Oxon., fil. 1. us. Rich'i
buried somewhere else than at Forest Powell de Fforest Hill in com. p'd.
Hill, and that the second inherited arm., an. nat. 14"; "1640. Maii 18.
her name.— As late as 1649, we cer- Jacob. Powell, Oxon., fil. Rich'i Powell
tainly know (Hamilton's Milton Papers, de Fforest Hill in com. Oxon. arm.,
p. 80), nine of the Powell children an. nat. 14." The Thonias in the first
were alive : possibly, therefore, ten, or entry is clearly a mistake for Richard;
all in the list except the first Elizabeth, and in both cases the age at matricu-
were alive at the date with which we lation is understated. In March 1636-7
are now concerned, i.e. in 1643. We Richard Powell, the eldest son, was in
also know independently that Richard, his sixteenth year ; and in May 1640
who appears first in the list, was the James, the second son, was in his
eldest son and heir. The list, I have seventeenth,
little doubt, gives the complete family.
May 1643.] THE POWELLS OF FOREST HILL. 501
room next the closet," " the room over the washhouse," and
"Mr. Powell's study ", — in all fourteen sitting-rooms and
bed-rooms for the family and guests ; in addition to " the
kitchen," " the servants' chamber," " the pastry," " the pantry,"
" the bakehouse," " the brewhouse," " the dairy-house," " the
cellar," " the stilling-house " (where they made essences and
strong waters), " the cheese-press house," and " the wool
house." The stables, yards, barns, and gardens are to be
imagined round about, all sufficiently stocked. We hear
particularly of " two coaches," " one wain and four carts,"
and an unusual quantity of " timber " and " firewood " in
different states : this last, doubtless, a consequence of Mr.
Powell's dealings with the Forest. The best room in the
house, it is worth noting, or at least the best furnished, was
Mrs. Powell's own room ; after which, in order of importance,
came " the room over the washhouse," " the great parlour,"
and " the matted chamber " ; while Mr. Powell's study,
I find, ranked but eleventh in point of style and furnishing,
and was used moreover as a stow-room for linen. There are
other reasons for thinking that Mrs. Powell was the ruling
spirit of the family, and remembered that she was a Moulton
or a Moulton- Archdale, and had brought her husband 3,000/.,
which it would have been difficult for him to reproduce
on demand.1
" Heigho ! those horrid civil broils ! " poor Mr. Powell may
have thought, ruminating in his study beside the household
linen, or walking amid his stores of cut wood, or among
the coppices he leased, moody about his debts. For he had
to take a side, and which side he should take was hardly in
his option. From November 1642 Oxford was the King's
head-quarters. He held his court in person in Christchurch ;
1 The authority for tho {mrticulan ventory was 310/. 12». 2rf.— equivalent
in this paragraph i« an inventory of the to over 1,0001. now. But the circum-
household goods, &«., at Forest Hill stances were such that the goods were
made June 16, 1646, in circumstances then appraised at far under their true
to be described hereafter. See copy in value,— probably at less than huh. A
Hamilton's Milton Papers: Document very largo proportion of tho total value
\\\ I. Appendix (pp. 92—94). The —more than a half in fact— was set
total valuation of the goods in that in- down to the wood and timber.
502 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the city was full of his adherents, and wild with Eoyalist
enthusiasm ; the Colleges were all unsettled, and their plate
going to the crucible for his Majesty's use ; studies were all
but suspended, and the younger Fellows and Undergraduates
were vociferous at their daily drill. The Royalist excite-
ment extended over the country round, and Forest Hill was
in the very heart of the whirl. One sees the three or
four miles of high-road between Oxford and Forest Hill
unusually astir with signs of Eoyalism : young King's officers
at gallop, and companies out marching, hurrahing, and sing-
ing loyal songs. Even had not Mr. Powell been a King's
tenant, what could he be but a Eoyalist ? Very probably, in
the overcrowded state of Oxford, he had King's men billeted
upon him ; and, more certainly, he must have contributed,
like his neighbours, voluntarily or not, to the King's cause
in money or other supplies. " Heigho ! this horrid Civil
War ! " must have been the poor man's private exclamation.
Mrs. Powell and the young people, on the other hand,
may have been more heartily Eoyalist. Very probably,
the two eldest sons, Eichard and James, turned out from
their rooms in Christchurch with the rest when the King
took up his abode in that College, had taken to soldier-
ing in one of the University companies. For the young
ladies, too, it was a changed world. For them it was not
a mere clerical Oxford that was at hand, solemn with gowns
and hoods, but an Oxford of scarlet sashes, military music
and military balls, enlivening the whole country, and flashing
its particles all day long past Forest Hill gate in the persons
of couriers and cavaliers.
It was about Whitsuntide 164 3, according to Phillips, that
Milton left his house in Aldersgate Street, London, for a
journey into the country, nobody about him certainly knowing
the reason. Now, in the year 1 643, Whit-Sunday (the seventh
Sunday after Easter) fell on the 21st of May; and Milton's
Whitsun holiday extended, it is said, over a month. Of all
places in the world Forest Hill was the last where anybody
that knew him would have expected to hear of his spending it.
For one thing, communication between London and the King's
May 1643.] MILTON '8 MARRIAGE : MARY POWELL. 503
quarters at Oxford was not then so easy : passes were required
on both sides, and persons coming and going ran risks.1 But,
even with a pass, for Milton to venture into the neighbourhood
of Oxford, — MILTON, the Anti-Episcopal pamphleteer, and
altogether one of the most marked of extreme Parliamen-
tarians out of Parliament : why, it was venturing into the
camp of the Philistines ! And yet, it appears, this is what
Milton did. Making his way through all the Royalist bustle
of Oxford, he presented himself, we are to suppose, some day
late in May, at the gate of the Forest Hill mansion, was
received into that nest of Royalists, and not only received
but invited to stay, and accommodated, as a guest for a whole
month, with one of the spare rooms, — whether with " the
matted chamber," as the best, or, if that was preoccupied
by some King's officer, with " the chamber over the little
parlour," as the next best: during which month (and this
is the crowning marvel) matters were so managed that, when
he went away, he took the eldest daughter of the house with
him as his wife ! It was a mystery to his nephews, the two
boys Phillips, whom he had left in London ; and it is a
mystery to all of us yet. When he left Aldersgate Street,
did he know that he was going to Forest Hill, and only
keep the thing secret to avoid gossip ? Or did he purpose
only to go to Reading, to see his father and brother after
the siege of that place, — the capitulation of Reading to
the Parliamentarians having taken place but three weeks
before ; and was his going on to Oxford an afterthought,
suggested by talk with his father ? In either case, what
was his object in going ? Was it to look after that debt of
5 DO/, which had been owing to him for sixteen years by
Mr. Powell, and the chances of the payment of which were
getting less with the new derangement of Mr. Powell's
atlaiix ' Did he come seeking his 500/., and did Mrs.
Powell heave a daughter at him ? Or, once he was in the
1 .l:m. li>. 1642-3, there was an order London should bo treated as spie«
of the Commons that no carrier or wag- (Rush worth, V. 117). Again, in July
goner should go to Oxford or elsewhere 1643, there was a royal |ir»danmti<-n,
without special licence, and that ser- from Oxford, forbidding all commerce
vanta of Royalists in arms coming to with London.
504 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
house, did it all come about naturally ; a sweet country
girl, bashful in his presence amid her brothers and sisters ;
morning walks amid woods and fields when blooming May
was passing into leafy June ; evenings mild and still, in
which to saunter about near the house, till the air browned
over the land, and two persons casually together could listen,
as it darkened, for the songs of the nightingales ? And so
did it happen that he who had once or twice before in his
life confessed, rather seriously, to love's wound, — once in his
twentieth year, when a fair form passed him in a London
crowd and was seen no more, l and again, in his thirty-first
year, when the society of some stately black-eyed Italian
near Bologna taught him the power of the southern type of
beauty and made him prefer it for the time to the blonde
complexions of his own north 2, — did it so happen that he,
arrived now at an age when marriage with somebody or
other must have been more and more in his thoughts,
yielded to the opportunity that circumstances had brought
about, and, resigning all the vague dreams of more splendid
somebodies that there might be in the world, ended the
quest at once by putting his arm round the simple waist
that was attainable ? Father and mother being willing, for
whatever reasons, a whisper to Mary Powell, in the garden
or amid the timber-stacks, may have settled everything. Or,
after all, had he been already for some time engaged to her,
and had he come to redeem his engagement ? This is not
an unnatural hypothesis. It has even been suggested by
Todd that a marriage between Milton and Mary Powell may
have been arranged between the two families while she was
a child, and that Mr. Powell's recognizance in 1627 of a debt
of 500/. to the young Cambridge student may have apper-
tained somehow to the contract. The suggestion seems
totally absurd; but one may fairly suppose that, even if
there were not already relations between the two families
before the recognizance, some acquaintanceship between them
may have followed from it. In that case we need not sup-
pose this visit of Milton at Whitsuntide 1643 to have been
1 See Vol. I. pp. 188—190. 2 Vol. I. pp. 824-829.
May 1643.] MILTON'S MARRIAGE : MARY POWELL. 505
his first visit to Forest HilL He may have been there
l>etbre, — at the time, for example, of his incorporation into
Oxford University in 1635. And so Mary Powell in
her childhood may not have been quite a stranger to
him ; and it is just possible that, when, in the course of the
Smectymnuan controversy, he was twitted by Bishop Hall
and his son with looking after " a rich widow," and he took
the trouble, in retorting, to explain that, when he did marry,
he would " choose a virgin of mean fortunes, honestly bred,
before the wealthiest widow,"1 some recollection of Mary
Powell may have been in his mind. On the whole, however,
the evidence is decidedly against the notion of any long pre-
engagement. Phillips's account of the marriage conveys the
distinct impression that it was a hurried and unexpected affair.
Wood also, writing from Aubrey's information, but who was
himself near enough to Forest Hill to have learnt something
about the Powells directly, conveys the same impression.
" He in a month's time," says Wood, " courted, married, and
" brought home to his house in London a wife from Forest
" Hill, lying between Halton and Oxford, named Mary, the
" daughter of Mr. Powell of that place, gent." * The prob-
ability, therefore, is that Milton knew very little about
his wife before he married her, and that the step was
hastily taken. He was in his thirty-fifth year ; the bride's
age was seventeen years and four or five months : in other
words, the bridegroom was just twice as old as the bride.
We have no portrait of her, nor any account of her appear-
ance ; but, on the usual rule of the elective affinities of
opposites, Milton being fair, we will vote her to have been
dark-haired.3
When Milton returned, with his girl-wife, to his house in
Aldersgate Street, they did not come alone. " Some few of
i See ««#, p. 408. only one for the year 1642,— the nor-
* Wood'* Fasti, I. 482. BOM in this lost being William Willing
* There w no record of the marriage and Mary Clarke, and the entry having
of Milton and Mary Powell in the Forest been partially unutud in 1643. The
Hill Registers. Indeed, in those Re^ix- likelihood aeems to be that Milton's
ten, as I am informed l.y tl marriage did not take place at Forest
the Rev. C. F. Wy.-itt. thrrc is i..- m.-.r- Hill. \V;,> n at o\fonl ' The register
rioge entry at all for the year 1643, and may yet turn up.
506 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
her nearest relations/' says Phillips, " accompanied the bride
to her new habitation." Had Mrs. Powell taken the oppor-
tunity of running up to London herself, to see her daughter
settled in her new house ; or was it only a few of the young
Forest Hill people, — the younger sisters and bridesmaids ?
They seem, at all events, to have pretty well filled the house,
and to have taught Milton what it was to be a married man
with a bouquet of young sisters-in-law. " The feasting," says
Phillips, "held for some days in celebration of the nuptials,
and for entertainment of the bride's friends." Some days
may imply a week. After that, according to Phillips, " they
took their leave, and, returning to Forest Hill, left their
sister behind." And so, in June 1643, Milton's married
life began, and the two were left together to find how they
suited each other.
Not well, it seems ! On Milton's part, as we shall see
soon enough, there was a dawning perception, after the first
blindness of the honeymoon, that his young wife was stupid ;
but, on her part, there was more. There was fright, there
was distaste, there was a sense of solitude. To the poor
young thing there had come what comes not unfrequently
to very young brides, taken suddenly from all the accustomed
cheerfulness of a numerous and hospitable home, and com-
mitted to the sole society of a comparative stranger. There
had come a terror of her new situation, a feeling of home-
sickness, a longing to be back with Mamma. From the
moment, indeed, of the departure of her brothers and sisters
back to Forest Hill, her heart had gone with them. Possibly
Milton's ways were not so considerate as they ought to have
been. Aubrey's account of the matter is that the young wife,
having been " brought up and lived where there was a great
" deal of company and merriment, dancing, &c., when she
" came to live with her husband, found it very solitary : no
" company came to her ; oftentimes heard his nephews beaten
" and cry " : so that the life " was irksome to her." Aubrey
was not always accurate in his gossip, and that item of the
nephews being beaten and crying looks very like the kind of
item his own fancy would invent. Phillips, at all events,
May 1643.] MILTON'S MARRIAGE : MARY POWELL.
r.07
who was one of the nephews, has no such item in his account.
Substantially, however, it agrees with Aubrey's. " After having
been used to a great house, and much company and joviality,"
the life with Milton in Aldersgate Street was too " philoso-
phical " for her : i.e. Milton had relapsed into his books,
.studies and contemplations, and the teaching of his nephews,
and the poor girl was left too much to her own thoughts and
the one delight of correspondence with home. The conse-
quence soon showed itself. " By that time she had for a
•' month or thereabout led a philosophical life," says Phillips,
" her friends, possibly incited by her own desire, made earnest
" suit, by letter, to have her company the remaining part of
" the summer." Milton may have been surprised at the
request, and was doubtless chagrined. To go back to her
father's house immediately after the honeymoon ! What
would people think ? With whatever grace, however, he did
give his consent; and some time in July 1643, if Phillips's
date is correct, the young wife went back on a visit to Forest
HilL The distinct understanding was that she should return
at Michaelmas (Sept. 29) or thereabouts.1
Phillips informs us that it was precisely at the time of this
absence of Milton's wife on a visit to her relatives that
Milton's father came from Reading to reside with him. Nay,
it was at the same time, according to the same authority (and
there could not be a better for the fact), that there first came
to reside with Milton a few pupils in addition to his two
nephews. They were not pupils advertised for in the ordinary
way, Phillips carefully explains, but the sons of intimate
1 The account* of Milton's marriage
l,v W.,.,.l (arm KsQjand T.. land (1698),
being baaed on Aubrey 'sand Phillips's,
contain nothing really additional ; >>ui
they may be quoted here. " She, who
* waa very young, and had been bred
' up in a family of plenty and freedom,
not well pleased with her hiw-
retired manner of life, did
' shortly after leave him." So writes
Wood briefly ; while Toland expatiates
i little thus: "Whether it was that
4 this young woman, accustomed to a
4 large ami jovial family, could not live
4 in a philosophical retirement, or that
4 she was not {mrfuctly satisfied with
4 the person of her husband, or, lastly,
' that, because her relations were all
4 addicted to the royal interest, his do-
4 mocratic principles were disagreeable
4 to her humour (nor is it impossible
4 that the father rtpttltH of this
4 match upon the prospect of some
4 success on the King's side, who then
• had his huad.|iiartoni at Oxford), or
4 whatever were the reason, 'tin certain
• that, after ho had enjoyed her com -
1 pany at London about a month, she
4 was invited by her friends to spend
4 the rest of the summer in the country ;
4 to which he consented on condition
4 of her return by Michaelmas."
508 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
friends, received by way of favour. It may have been an
excuse for the absence of the wife that she had but gone out
of the way till arrangements were made in the house for
these newcomers. At all events, in her absence, the house
was sufficiently busy. " The studies," says Phillips, " went
" on with so much the more vigour as there were more hands
" and heads employed ; the old gentleman living wholly
" retired to his rest and devotion, without the least trouble
" imaginable." With which picture of the house in Alders-
gate Street in or about July 1643, let us leave Milton in
it for the present, waiting for the return of his wife at
Michaelmas.
CHAPTER III.
MEETING OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
ABOUT the time when Milton's wife left him on a visit to
her friends, London was astir with a new event of great
consequence in the course of the national revolution. This
was the meeting of the famous WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
The necessity of an ecclesiastical Synod or Convocation,
to co-operate with the Parliament, had been long felt. Among
the articles of the Grand Remonstrance of Dec. 1641 had
been one desiring a convention of " a General Synod of the
most grave, pious, learned, and judicious divines of this
island, assisted by some from foreign parts," to consider of
all things relating to the Church and report thereon to
Parliament.1 It is clear, from the wording of this article,
that it was contemplated that the Synod should contain
representatives from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Indeed, by that time, the establishment of a uniformity of
Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship between the Churches of
England and Scotland was the fixed idea of those who
chiefly desired a Synod. There had been, as we know,
express communications on the subject between the leading
English Puritan ministers and the chiefs of the Scottish Kirk ;
and it may be remembered how strongly Henderson had taken
the matter to heart, and how, in connexion with it, he had
made a " notable motion " in the Scottish General Assembly
of Aug. 1641 (see antl, p. 290). Might it not be well, he
had then urged, that the Scottish Church should employ
it -.-It' in "drawing up a Confession of Faith, a Catechism, a
Directory for all the parts of the public worship, and a
> See a*tf, p. 327.
510 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" Platform of Government, wherein possibly England and we
" might agree " ? Henderson's notion was that, if such an
authoritative exposition of the whole theory and practice
of the Kirk of Scotland could be drawn up for the study of
the English, and especially if care were taken in it not to be
ultra- Scottish in mere minutiae, the effect would be to facili-
tate the religious union of the two nations. The Scottish
Assembly, at any rate, had warmly entertained the notion,
and had deputed the difficult and delicate work to Henderson
himself. Henderson, however, as we had subsequently to
report (ante, p. 41 9), had, on more mature thoughts, abandoned
the project. He had done so for reasons creditable to his
considerateness and good sense. It had occurred to him that
the English might like to think out the details of their
Church-Reformation for themselves, that it might do more
harm than good to thrust an elaborated Scottish system
upon them as a perfection already consummate, and that
it might even be becoming in the Scots to hold themselves
prepared, in the interests of the conformity they desired, to
gravitate towards what might be the English conclusions
on non-essential points. At all events, he had come to see
that the work was too great for the responsibility of any one
man. Possibly, too, he knew by that time (April 1642)
that a general synod of English divines would very soon
be called.
Actually, in April 1642, just when Henderson gave up the
business as too great for one man's strength, the English
House of Commons were making arrangements for a Synod
of Divines. On the 19th of that month, it was ordered by
the House, in pursuance of previous resolutions on the subject,
" that the names of such divines as shall be thought fit to
be consulted with concerning the matter of the Church be
brought in to-morrow morning," the understood rule being
that the knights and burgesses of each English county should
name to the House two divines, and those of each Welsh
county one divine, for approval. Accordingly, on the 20th,
the names were given in ; on that day, the divines proposed
for nine of the English counties were approved of in pairs ;
July 1643.] MEETING OP THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 511
and on following days the rest of the English counties
( London and the two Universities coming in for separate
representation) were gone over, pretty much in their alpha-
betical order, the Welsh counties and the Channel Islands
coming last, till, on April 25, the tale of the divines " thought
fit to be consulted with" was complete. It included 102
divines, generally from the counties for which they were
severally named ; but by no means always so, for in not a few
cases the knights and burgesses of distant counties nominated
divines living in London or near it. In almost all cases the
divines named by the knights and burgesses for their several
counties were approved of by the House unanimously ; but a
vote was taken on the eligibility of one of the divines named
for Yorkshire, and he was carried by a bare majority of 1 0 3
to 99, and, exceptions having been taken on the 25th to the
two appointed for Cumberland on the 20th, their appoint-
ment was cancelled and others were substituted. On the
same day on which the list of divines was completed, a com-
mittee of twenty-seven members of the House, including
Hampden, Selden, and Lord Falkland, was appointed " to
" consider of the readiest way to put in execution the resolu-
" tions of this House in consulting with such divines as they
" have named." The result was that on the 9th of May there
was brought in a " Bill for calling an Assembly of godly and
" learned Divines to be consulted with by the Parliament for
" the settling of the Government and Liturgy of the Church,
" and for the vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the
" ( 'hurch of England from false aspersions and interpretations."
< )n that day the Bill was read twice in the Commons and
committed; and on the 19th it was read a third time and
1. The Lords, having then taken the Bill into con-
sideration, proposed (May 26, 16 42) the addition of fourteen
divines of their own choice to those named by the Commons ;
and, the Commons having agreed to this amendment, the
Hill passed both Houses, June l,and waited only the Kin- ^
assent. It was intended that the Assembly should meet the
next month.1
1 Commons and Lords Journals of dates mentioned.
512 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
The King had other things to do at that moment than
assent to a Bill for an Assembly of Divines. He was at
York, gathering his forces for the Civil War ; and by the
time when it was expected the Assembly should have been
at work the Civil War had begun. Nevertheless, the Parlia-
ment persevered in their design. Twice again, while the war
was in its first stage, Bills were introduced to the same effect
as that which had been stopped. Bill the Second for calling
an Assembly of Divines was in October, and Bill the Third in
December, 1642. In these Bills the two Houses kept to the
116 Divines agreed upon under the first Bill, with (as far as
I. have been able to trace the matter through their Journals)
only one deletion, two substitutions, and three proposed
additions.1— — Still, by the stress of the war, the Assembly
was postponed. At last, hopeless of a Bill that should pass
in the regular way by the King's consent, the Houses
resorted, in this as in other things, to their peremptory plan
of ORDINANCE by their own authority. On the 13th of May
1643, an Ordinance for calling an Assembly was introduced
in the Commons ; which Ordinance, after due going and
coming between the two Houses, came to maturity June 12,
when it was entered at full length in the Lords Journals.
" Whereas, amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God
" upon this nation," — so runs thepreamble of the Ordinance, —
" none is, or can be, more dear to us than the purity of our
" Religion ; and forasmuch as many things yet remain in the
" discipline, liturgy, and government of the Church which
" necessarily require a more perfect reformation ; and whereas
" it has been declared and resolved, by the Lords and Com-
" mons assembled in Parliament, that the present Church
" Government by Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors,
" Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons,
" and other ecclesiastical officers depending on the hierarchy,
" is evil, and justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom,
" and a great impediment to reformation and growth of
" religion, and very prejudicial to the state and government
1 Commons and Lords Journals at 1642-3 ; especially C. J. Oct. 15 and
various dates from Oct. 1642 to Jan. 19, 1642, and Jan. 6, 1642-3.
July 1613. J MEETING OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 513
" of this kingdom, and that therefore they are resolved the
" same shall be taken away, and that such a government
" shall be settled in the Church as may be agreeable to God's
" Holy Word, and most apt to procure and preserve the peace
" of the Church at home, and nearer agreement with the
" Church of Scotland, and other reformed Churches abroad
" . . . : Be it therefore ordained, &c." What is ordained is
that 149 persons, enumerated by name in the Ordinance
(10 of them being members of the Lords House, 20 members
of the Commons House, and the other 119 mainly the
divines that had already been fixed upon, most of them a
year before),1 shall meet on the 1st of July next in King
Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, and that these
persons, and such others as shall be added to them by Parlia-
ment from time to time, shall have power to continue their
sittings as long as Parliament may see fit, and " to confer and
" treat among themselves of such matters and things, con-
" cerning the liturgy, discipline, and government of the
" Church of England, or the vindicating and clearing of the
" doctrine of the same from all false aspersions and miscon-
" structions, as shall be proposed by either or both Houses of
" Parliament^ and no other" The words in italics are im-
portant. The Assembly was not to be an independent
National Council ranging at its will and settling things by its
own authority. It was to be a body advising Parliament on
matters referred to it and on these alone, and its conclusions
were to have no validity until they should be reported to
Parliament and confirmed there. Forty members of the
Assembly were to constitute a quorum, and the proceedings
were not to be divulged without consent of Parliament. Four
shillings a day were to be allowed to each clerical member
1 The following divines, who hod son, of Durham ; Dr. Richard Lloyd
been among the 102 originally thought [Denbigh) ; Dr. Soames, of Staines ; Dr.
fit by the Commons in April 1642, or Marsh, of St. Dunstan's-in-tho-East,
among the 14 added to that list \<\ the London ; and Dr. John Earle, of Hi-hop-
Lords in May 1642, wore not among the Htonu, Wilts (author of the J//crucomo>
119 named in tho Ordinance of .! /./,//, and afterwards Bishop). It i»
1643 :— Dr. Pridcaux, Bishop of Wor- the more necessary to note this because
coster ; Thomas Dillingham, of Dean, some of these persons figure in li-t- »f
B.D. ; Mr. Levett, oflttpoa ; Samuel the actual Assembly of Divines.
Crook, of Wranton, B.D. ; Dr. Jonni-
VOL. II 2 L
514 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
for his expenses, with immunity for non-residence in his
parish or any neglect of his ordinary duties that might be
entailed by his presence at Westminster. William Twisse,
D.D., of Newbury, was to be Prolocutor, or Chairman, of the
Assembly ; and he was to have two " Assessors," to supply
his place in case of necessary absence. There were to be two
" Scribes," who should be divines, but not members of the
Assembly, to take minutes of the proceedings. Every mem-
ber of the Assembly, on his first entrance, was to make
solemn protestation that he would not maintain anything
but what he believed to be the truth ; no resolution on any
question was to be come to on the same day on which it was
first propounded ; whatever any speaker maintained to be
necessary he was to prove out of the Scriptures ; all decisions
of the major part of the Assembly were to be reported to
Parliament as the decisions of the Assembly ; but the dissents
of individual members were to be duly registered, if they
required it, and also reported to Parliament. The Lords
wanted to regulate also that no long speeches should be per-
mitted in the Assembly, so that matters might not be carried
by " impertinent flourishes " ; but the Commons, for reasons
that are not far to seek, did not agree to this regulation.1
Notwithstanding a Eoyal Proclamation from Oxford, dated
June 22, forbidding the Assembly and threatening conse-
quences, the first meeting duly took place on the day
appointed, — Saturday, July 1, 1643 ; and from that date till
the 22nd of February 1 648-9, or for more than five years and
a half, the WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY is to be borne in mind as
a power or institution in the English realm, existing side by
side with the Long Parliament, and in constant conference
and co-operation with it. The number of its sittings during
those five years and a half was 1,163 in all ; which is at the
rate of about four sittings every week for the whole time.
The earliest years of the Assembly were the most important.
All in all, it was an Assembly which left remarkable and
1 Ordinance itself at large in Lords Also subsequent Regulations for As-
Journals, June 12, 1643 : abridged by sembly in Lords Journals, June 29 :
Neal, Hist, of Puritans, III. 48—50. modified July 6.
July 1643.] LIST OF THK WKsTMINSTEK ASSEMBLY. 515
permanent effects in the British Islands, and the history of
which ought to be more interesting to Britons now, in some
homely respects, than the history of the Council of Basel, the
Council of Trent, or any other of the great ecclesiastical
Councils, more ancient and oecumenical, about which we
hear so much.
The following is the most complete and accurate list of
the Members of the Assembly I have been able to draw up,
reserving only some Scotsmen who are to be added, in a
group by themselves, afterwards : —
I. OFFICIALS OF THE ASSEMBLY.
WILLIAM TWISSB, D.D. (OxonA Rector of Newbury, Berk*, was the Prolocutor or
SncaJctr, appointed by Parliament. He was of German descent ; a tut. about
69 ; and was of note as a polemical theologian, especially against Arminianism.
the Prolocutorship by Mr. Horlo
He died July 1646, and was succeeded in
(whose name see below). — When the Prolocutor was unablo to take the
chair it was taken by either Dr. BUHGKS or Mr. WHITE (see these names
below) ; which two members were known accordingly as "Assessors" to the
Prolocutor. They were appointed by the Assembly itself ; but Parliament
had already nominated tne two "Scribes," or Clerks of the Assembly —
viz. Mr. HENRY ROBOROUGH (afterwards minister of St. Leonard's, East-
cheap), and Mr. ADOXIRAM BYKIELD, M.A. (Cantab.). The Scribes were
not properly members of Assembly, and did not vote. After a little while
(i.e. Dec. 18, 1643), a Mr. JOHN WALLIS was appointed as their "aman-
uonsis," or assistant. He was a young man in holy orders, fresh from
Cambridge and not much known ; Hit he lived to bo famous as Dr. John
Wallis. the Divine, Decipherer, and Mathematician, Professor of Geometry at
Oxford, and one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was probably
the last survivor of all who had taken part in the Westminster Assembly ;
for ho died in 1703, letat. 88.
1I.-D1 VINES NOMINALLY MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY AT ONE
TIME OR ANOTHER.
In the following list the names of the divines originally ap-
pointed by Parliament to constitute the clerical portion of the
Assembly are arranged alphabetically, without typographical dis-
tinction of those who actually served and were the real constituting
body from those who never appeared in the Assembly, or withdrew
from it soon, and so cannot be accounted real members. These may
have been about twenty in all, and the most important of them are
noted as their names occur. — There were, however, some nineteen
divin.-> .t.l.iol l.y Parliament at various times after the Assembly
had Ix-iruii it* work. Tin- names of .siu-h of these as came in the
places ot original members uh<> had died or withdrawn tln-m
are given, not alphabetically, but in the same paragraphs with the
names of the original DMmben whom they respectively succeeded.
In cases, however, where a new member was not thus merely sul>-
I for an original member, but was, or appears to have been,
gupcraddcd on his own account, the name is printed in its alpha-
5~16 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
betical order, but a little inwards in the page.1 The dates of the
substitutions or superadditions, so far as they can be gathered* from
the Lords and Commons Journals, are duly inserted : —
ARROWSMITH, JOHN, M.A. (Cantab.) : Vicar of Lynn, Norfolk, cetat. 41. He had
been a Fellow of Catherine Hall when Milton was at Cambridge. He was
"a man with a glass eye," having lost one of his eyes by an arrow-shot.
ASHE, SIMEON (Cantab.) : minister of St. Bride's, London. He was appointed to
the Assembly, June 14, 1643, instead of Josias Shute, B.D., named in the
Ordinance, but dead. He had had a living in Staffordshire, but had been
dispossessed for Puritanism, and had resumed duty as a military chaplain in
attendance on the Earl of Manchester.
BATHURST, THOMAS (or THEOPHILUS) : Vicar of Overton with Fyfield, Wilts.
BAYLY, THOMAS, B.D. (Oxon.) : Rector of Manningford Bruce, Co. Wilts, cetat. circ,
58 ; ob. 1663.
BOWLES, OLIVER, B.D. (Cantab.): Rector of Sutton, Bedfordshire; ob. 1644.— In
his place there was appointed to the Assembly (March 19, 1644-5) THOMAS
FORD, M.A. (Oxon.), preacher at Exeter, atat. 40. He had been tutor in
Magdalen Hall, Oxford, but had lost his tutorship and all chance of pre-
ferment in the Church in consequence of a Puritanical sermon preached
in 1631.
BRIDGE, WILLIAM, M.A. (Cantab.) : minister at Yarmouth, Norfolk ; cetat. 43. He
had been a Fellow of Emanuel College, and a preacher in Norwich ; but,
having been silenced for nonconformity by Bishop Wren, had gone to
Holland (1637), and become pastor to an English congregation in Rotterdam.
He had returned in 1641.
BROWNRIGGE, RALPH, D.D., Bisliop of Exeter (Cantab.). Appointed originally
as one of the representatives of Cambridge University in the Assembly, but
never took his place.
BULKELEY (or BUCKLEY), RICHARD, B.D. He represented Anglesey. *
BURGESS, ANTHONY, M.A. (Cantab.): Rector of Sutton-Coidfield, Warwickshire,
and Lecturer at Lawrence Jewry in London. He had been a Fellow of Emanuel
College, Cambridge.
BURGES, CORNELIUS, D.D. (Oxon.) : Vicar of Watford, Herts ; cetat. circ. 50. He
had been Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles I. ; but for some years had been
one of the loudest of the Puritan ministers. He had argued the question of
cathedral establishments, on the Puritan side, against Hacket on the other,
before the House of Commons (see ante, p. 228). He was one of the Asses-
sors to Prolocutor Twisse, and was a man of consequence in the Assembly,
and, indeed, till the Restoration ; after which he lost his considerable
wealth and fell into extreme distress. He died July 1665, and was buried
in Watford Church.
BURROUGHS, JEREMIAH, M.A. (Cantab.): cetat. circ. 43. His nonconforming
opinions had driven him abroad, and he had been minister (along with Bridge
to an English congregation at Rotterdam. Returning in 1641, he had
accepted no parochial charge, but had been occupying himself as a preacher
in London, — more particularly at Stepney on Sunday mornings ; where he
drew such large audiences and was so popular that Hugh Peters had named
him "the Morning Star of Stepney." He died Nov. 1646. — To supply his
place in the Assembly there was appointed (March 13, 1646-7) SAMUEL
BOULTON (Cantab.), minister of St. Martin's, Ludgate. He was appointed,
about the same time, to the Mastership of Christ's College, Cambridge, vacant
by the death of Dr. Bainbrigge ; and he lived till 1654. This Boulton must
have been well known to Milton, as they had been at Christ's College together,
and had taken their degrees of B.A. and M.A. at the same time (see Vol. I.
pp. 218 and 258).
1 I suspect, however, that even the for what divines they were respectively
few divines I have had thus to distin- substituted that I have to print their
guish as superadded were also substi- names apart and imvards, instead of
tutes for original members Awho_ had ranging them in the same paragraphs
died or withdrawn, and that it is'only with those whose places they took,
because I have not been able to find out
July 1643.] LIST OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 517
CALAMY, EDMUND, B.D. (Cantab.): minister of Aldormanbury, London : >n,,t. \\\.
He was first designated for the Assembly as one of the four representatives
«>f the London clergy. He had been a parish-minister in Suffolk many years
before, but had been ejected for nonconformity by Bishop Wren. Since his
appointment to Aldermanbury in 1639 he had been one of the most popular
preachers in London, and an eminent leader of the Presbyterian party. He
was one of the " Smectymnuans." He lived till after the Restoration, and died
in Oct. 1666, after having surveyed, with grief, the ruins of the Great Fire of
London.
CAPBL, RICHARD, M.A. (Oxon.): a tat. 57. He had been a parish-minister in
Gloucestershire, but had resigned the charge in 1633 on account of his Puritan-
ism, and had since then been practising physic at Pitchcombe in the same
county. He died 1656.
CARYL, JOSEPH, M.A. (Oxon.) : preacher at Lincoln's Inn ; <n<it. 41. First chosen
for the Assembly as one or the four representatives of the London clergy.
He was afterwards minister of St. Magnus, London Bridge ; was distinguished
as a Puritan preacher and author ; wrote a vast commentary on the Book
of Job ; and died Feb. 1672-3.
CASK, THOMAS, M.A. (Oxon.): minister of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street,
London ; octal. 45 : ob. 1682, cetat. 84.
CARTER, JOHN, of York.
CARTER, WILLIAM (Cantab.) : preacher in London ; <ttat. 36. He died 1658.
CARTER, WILLIAM : Vicar of Dinton. Bucks.— Either he or John Carter was
succeeded in the Assembly by a Mr. JOHNSTON (March 2, 1645-6).
CHAMBERS, HUMPHREY, M.A. (Oxon.) : Rector of Claverton, Somersetshire ; a>tat.
44; had been silenced and imprisoned for Puritanism. He became D.D.,
and died 1662.
CHBYNEL, FRANCIS, M.A. (Oxon.): Rector of Petworth, Sussex; tetat. 35: was
afterwards D.D., President of St. John's College, Oxford, and Margaret
Professor of Divinity : ol>. 1665.
CLARKE, PETER (Cantab.) : Vicar of Carnaby, Yorkshire.
CLAYTON, RICHARD: Rector of Shawell, Leicestershire. Was he the Richard
Clayton (Cantab.), who was Master of University College. Oxford, and D.D.
(Oxon.), after the Restoration, and who died 1670 f
COKE, FRANCIS : of Yoxall, Staffordshire.
COLEMAN, THOMAS, M.A. (Oxon.): Vicar of Blyton, in Lincolnshire, and then
Rector of St. Peter's, Cornhill, London : <>i,,t. 45 ; a great Hebraist, so that
he was called " Rabbi Coleman " : ob. March 1646-7.
CONANT, JOHN, B.D. : Rector of Limington in Somersetshire (not Lymington in
Hants). He is to be distinguished from his nephew, of the same name,
afterwards Archdeacon of Norwich, &c.
CORBET, EDWARD, M.A. (Oxon.): minister of Chatham, Kent: <J>. 1667*
CBOSBB, ROBERT, B.D., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford; */«/. 38: afterwards
Vicar of Chew, Somersetshire, and died 1683.
I)E LA MARCHE. M. JEAN, \ ministers of the French Protestant Church in
DB LA PLACE, M. SAMUEL, / London : they were designated for the Assembly
to represent Jersey and Guernsey.
DOWNING, CAIJBUTB, D.D. (Oxon.): Vicar of Hackney, Middlesex; a-fat. 37.
He died very soon after the Assembly had begun its sittings.— His .successor
as member of the Assembly (appointed Nov. 2, 1643) was the celebrated
JOHN DURIE, of whom we have already had occasion to give some account
'-, pp. 367-8). Since 1641, when we last saw him, he had been residing
chiefly at the Hague, but probably with excursions hither and thither on
the Continent, and certainly with his eyes fixed on England, where the
ecclesiastical confusion that was raging seemed to offer new chances for what
he called hi- •• n.-j-otiation." The union of the Calvinists and Lutherans of
KurojH) wan ntill Dune's one idea or passion, by which he measured every-
thing, and in the interests of which ho would go anywhere and put him-rlf
in the midst of any turmoil ; and, just as formerly he had been in (••>mmuni-
cation on the subject with Lunl, Hall, and other English prelates, HO m.-n-
recently he had been corresponding with the chiefs of the mflfatnl v »
of the ascendant Puritanism. His a|>|x>intmont to the Westminster Assembly
by the Kn-li-h Parliament was rather, I should suppose, in recognition of
his jxK-nliur European notoriety, acquired by the incessant prosecution of
his own idea for nearly fifteen years, than in expectation of much direct practi-
cal counsel from him in the Immediate problems of the English Church. Ho
518 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
did, nevertheless, appear in the Assembly and take some considerable part
in the proceedings. As I find it distinctly on record, however, that he was
minister of the English Merchants' Kirk in Rotterdam in 1645, it seems
necessary to imagine that, after he had taken his place in the Westminster
Assembly, he went and came between England and the Continent as suited him,
though more and more tending to residence in England. One hears of him, at
all events, as in England, off and on, till about the time of the Restoration.
DUNNING, WILLIAM : Rector of Goodalston, Notts.
ELLIS, EDWARD, B.D. : of Guilsfield, Montgomeryshire.
FEATLEY, DANIEL, D.D. (Oxon.): Provost of Chelsea College, and Rector of
Lambeth, and of Acton, Middlesex, but residing in Lambeth ; cetat. 61. His
family name was " Fairclough " ; but this had been corrupted into " Featley "
— which spelling he had adopted. He had been known in the Church, as a
writer and otherwise, for more than thirty years. In 1626 he had been
appointed by Archbishop Abbot to the Rectory of Allhallows in Bread Street,
Milton's native parish, in succession to Stock. He had held this living for
only a little time, removing from it to Acton. He was a veteran Calvinist,
and had been popular on that account ; but, as he adhered to Episcopacy,
and yet persisted in attending the Assembly, they suspected his motives, and
found an opportunity to eject him, Sept. 1643. He died 1645. — His suc-
cessor in the Assembly (appointed May 7, 1645) was RICHARD BYFIELD, M.A.
(Oxon. ), Rector of Long Ditton, Surrey, and brother of Adoniram Byfield, one
of the Scribes of the Assembly. He died Dec. 1664.
FOXCROFT, JOHN (B.A. Cantab., M.A. Oxon.) : Rector of Gotham, in Notts.
GAMMON, HANNIBAL, M.A. (Oxon.) : Rector of St. Mawgan in Cornwall ; cetat. 61.
He seems not to have served, probably on account of his distance from
London, and so not to have inflicted on the Assembly the ludicrousness of
his name.
GATAKER, THOMAS, B.D. (Cantab.): Rector of Rotherhithe ; cetat. 69. This veteran
Puritan, known to us since Milton's childhood (Vol. I. p. 54 and p. 71), was
one of the most respected and influential of the members of the Assembly, —
his reputation for learning being hardly less than for piety and sound
doctrine. He refused various offers of preferment, and remained pastor of
Rotherhithe till his death in 1654, cetat. 80. His writings are numerous.
GIBBON, JOHN (Cantab.) : of Waltham.
GIBSON, SAMUEL : of Burleigh, Rutlandshire.
GIPPES, GEORGE : Rector of Aylestone, Leicestershire.
GOAD (or GOOD), WILLIAM, B.D. : Rector of Denton, Norfolk (superadded
by Lords, the Commons agreeing, Feb. 1, 1643-4).
GOODWIN, THOMAS, D.D. (Cantab.): minister to a congregation in St. Dunstan's-
in-the-East, Thames Street, London ; cetat. 43. He had been of note among
the English Puritans since his Cambridge days ; had left the University on
grounds of conscience in 1634 ; had gone to Holland in 1639 and become
minister of an English congregation at Arnheim ; and had but recently
returned. He afterwards became President of Magdalen, Cambridge ; but
resigned at the Restoration and resumed preaching. He died Feb. 1679-
80, cetat. 80, and is still remembered as one of the Fathers of English
Independency.
GOUGE, WILLIAM, D.D. (Cantab.) : cetat. 68 ; minister of Blackfriars, London, since
1608. He had long been highly venerated among the Puritans, there being
' ' scarce a lord or lady or citizen of quality in or about the city that were
piously inclined but they sought his acquaintance." He died Dec. 12, 1653 ;
cetat. 79. See a memoir of him, with portrait, appended to Clarke's General
Martyrologie (1677).
GOWER, STANLEY : Rector of Brampton-Bryan, Herefordshire.
GREENE, JOHN : Rector of Pencombe, Herefordshire.
GREENHILL, WILLIAM, M.A. (Cantab.): cetat. 52; evening-lecturer at Stepney,
where Jeremiah Burroughs was morning-lecturer ; and hence called by
Hugh Peters " the Evening Star of Stepney," Burroughs being the " Morning
Star." He died in or about 1677.
HACKET, JOHN, D.D. (Cantab.): Rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn, Chaplain to
the King, &c. ; cetat. 52. He had defended cathedral establishments before
the Parliament (see ante, p. 228), and was altogether on the anti-Parliament-
arian side. Consequently he never sat in the Assembly, and was under a
cloud during the Commonwealth ; but, after the Restoration, he became
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. He died Oct. 1670.
July 1643.] LIST OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 519
HALL, HENRY. RD. (Cantab.): minister at Norwich.
HAMMOND, HENRY, D.D. (Oxon.) : Rector of Penshurst, Kent ; a-tat. 38. Ho never
in the Assembly ; was a decided Royalist through the Civil War, and,
going to Oxford, became Chaplain to the King, and University Orator. He
was in great esteem among the Royalists, and a voluminous writer. He died
on the eve of the Restoration.
HARDWICKE, HUMPHREY: Rector of Hadham, Herts (appointed May 1644).
HARRIS, JOHN, D.D. (Oxon.): Rector of Moon Stoke, Hants, and Warden of Wyko-
ham College, Winchester ; cetaJL. 55. He died Aug. 1658.— As he did not keep
place in the Assembly, his appointment was cancelled by the Commons
Oct. 11, 1643 ; and there was appointed in his stead (confirmed by the Lords
Oct. 16, 1643), DANIEL CAWDRKY (Cantab.), Rector of Great Billing, North-
amptonthire. He died 1664.
H.vmtis, ROBERT, M.A. (Oxon.): Rector of Hanwell, Oxfordshire ; atat. 65. He
did not immediately take his place in the Assembly, and, after he did take
it, was more of a listener than a speaker. He was afterwards D.D. and
President of Trinity College, Oxford, and died Dec. 1658, (flat. 80.
HBRLE, CHARLES, M.A. (Oxon.) : Rector of Winwick in Lancashire ; crtat. 45. Ho
was an active member of Assembly, and, on Twisse's death in 1646, suc-
ceeded as Prolocutor. He died at Winwick 1659.
HRRRICK, RICHARD, M.A. (Oxon.): Warden of the Collegiate Church, Manchester;
trtat. M. II-- died 1087.
HICKRS, JASPER, M.A. (Oxon.) : Vicar of Landrake in Cornwall ; a-tat. 38 : ob. 1677.
11 ii DKRSHAM, SAMUEL, B.D. (Cantab.): minister of West Felton, Shropshire.
HILL, THOMAS, B.D. (Cantab.): Rector of Titchmarsh in Northamptonshire, and
formerly Fellow and Tutor of Emanuel College, Cambridge. He mur
intimately acquainted with Lord Brooke, whom he frequently visited at
Warwick Castle ; and he had married a governess in that family. He
became afterwards Master of Emanuel College, and then of Trinity College,
Cambridge, and D.D. He died Dec. 18, 1653. There is a brief memoir of
him in Clarke's General Martyrologie (1677).
HODOES, THOMAS, RD. (Cantab.) : Rector of Kensington. Was Dean of Hereford
after the Restoration, and died 1672.
HOLDSWORTH, RICHARD, D.D. (Cantab.) : Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge.
Ho never sat in the Assembly ; was Royalist throughout ; suffered much for
his Royalism ; and died 1649.
HOYLE, JOSHUA, D.D. (Oxon.): Vicar of Stepney, where he was not so popular
as his coadjutors, the two lecturers Burroughs and Greenhill. He had been
Divinity Professor in Trinity College, Dublin, but had been driven from
Ireland by the Rebellion. Ho was afterwards Master of University College,
Oxford, and died 1654.
BUTTON, HENRY, M.A. : minister in Cumberland.
J.\< KSON. JOHN, M.A. : preacher at Gray's Inn.
I. \N< K, WILLIAM : Rector of Harrow : discontinued his attendance very soon.
' v. .IHHN : Rector of West Tytherley, Hampshire.
LEY, JOHN, M.A. (Oxon.): Vicar of Great Bud worth, Cheshire; cetat. 60: ol.
1662, tttat. 79.
LIGHTFWT, JOHN, D.D. (Cantab.): tttat. 41. This eminent theologian, deemed
the most learned Orientalist or Rabbinical scholar of his age, had l>een
educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, with Chappell for his tutor, and
had completed his studies there just when Milton was beginning his. Ho
was Rector of Ashley in Staffordshire when the Assembly was culled ; but
soon afterwards was promoted to the living of Much-Mundon in Herts. In
1649 he became Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge. He retained both
•-•rmontM till his death in 1675, «<<>•
i . ta ! .. ) : of Bonnet, or Corpus Christi, College, Cambridge.
iiKivpn'iiKK, M.A. (Oxon.), minister of St. Annen, Aldersgato,
LoM'loti. is mentioned by some as one of the suporaddod divines. He
wax of \\VMi l.irth ; ;in<l, tl,.,u./!, n<>t tnorv than 25 yean of age, was
already widely known for his I'lv-l.yt.-ri.m zeal.
\Vi 1 1 i \ M. M.A. (Oxon.) : Vicar of Sherlwrne, Dorsetuhiro ; «t«t. 45. H«
never sat in the Asscinoly, ami livi-«l till K553, when he died "of a painful
and sharp disease, by the witchcraft, as 'tis said, of certain ~
UIHI nilill I' u worn?) ujr t-uu T* in in. i *u it i\n i>m nu>i«*f \Ji wi MIIII ^UJ»»VUID«
ii . STEPHEN, RD. (Cantab.) : Vicar (?) of Finchingftold in Essex ; known
as one of the best Puritans of his day, and aa one of the " Smoctymnuans " ;
and by many thought to be the best preacher in England. Ho lived, greatly
520 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
respected, till Nov. 1655, when he was buried in Westminster Abbey ; whence,
however, after the Restoration, his body was removed by royal warrant.
MEW, WILLIAM, B.D. : of Eastington, Gloucestershire.
MICKLBTHWAIT, THOMAS : Rector of Cherry Burton, Yorkshire.
MORE, Mr. : a superadded member, so designated, of whom nothing is
known to me at present.
MORLEY, GEORGE, D.D. (Oxon.) : Rector of Miklenhall, Wilts ; cetat. 46. He was
one of the Falkland group of Latitudinarian thinkers (Vol. I. p. 533), and a
firm Royalist and friend of Episcopacy. He therefore never went near the
Assembly, and his appointment was cancelled Oct. 11, 1643. He kept with
the King, and afterwards lived in exile. After the Restoration he was made
Bishop of Winchester. He died in 1684; a-tat. 87. — Instead of Morley, a
WILLIAM RATHBONE of Highgate was appointed member of Assembly, Oct.
23, 1643 ; and he, dying soon after, was succeeded (Oct. 18, 1644) by a PHILIP
DELME (or DELMAY), minister of the French congregation in Canterbury.
MORTON, WILLIAM : of Newcastle. — He seems to have died before taking his seat
in the Assembly ; for in August 1643 there was appointed in his room FRANCIS
WOODCOCK, M.A. (Oxon.), lecturer of St. Lawrence Jewry, London ; cetat. 29.
He was afterwards minister of St. Olave's, Southwark, and died 1651.
NEWCOMEN, MATTHEW, M.A. (Cantab.): Vicar of Dedham in Essex, an eminent
Puritan, and one of the " Symectymnuans." He lost his living after the
Restoration, went abroad, and became pastor of the English Church at
Leyden, where he died.
NEWSCORE, WILLIAM : a superadded member (?).
NICOLSON, WILLIAM, M.A. (Oxon.): Archdeacon of Brecknock; cetat. 52. He
never sat in the Assembly, but remained a firm Royalist and Episcopalian,
occupying himself, through the Commonwealth time, as a schoolmaster in
Wales. After the Restoration he was made Bishop of Gloucester. — Nicol-
son's appointment to the Assembly having been cancelled by the Commons,
Oct. 23, 1643, there was substituted THOMAS CLENDON, of Barking.
NYE, HENRY : minister of Clapham. — He died ere the Assembly had well begun ;
and JOHN MAYNARD, M.A. (Oxon.), Vicar of Mayfield in Sussex, was appointed
in his place (Sept. 15, 1643). This Maynard lived till after the Restoration.
NYE, PHILIP, M.A. (Oxon.): brother of the above; minister of Kimbolton in
Hunts ; cetat. 47. He was a very pronounced Puritan ; had been in exile in
Holland, and minister there, along with Goodwin, to the English in Arnheim,
whence he had but recently returned. He had married a daughter of Stephen
Marshall. He was a very active member of Assembly and politician through
the time of the Civil War and Commonwealth. After the Restoration he
was minister to a private congregation in London, where he died 1672,
cetat. 76.
PAINTER, HENRY, B.D. : of Exeter. He died before Nov. 2, 1644 ; and JOHN
WARD of Ipswich was appointed in his stead.
PALMER, HERBERT, B.D. (Cantab.): Vicar of Ash well, Herts, since 1632; cetatA2. He
was a very active member, and was appointed at length one of the Assessors to
the Prolocutor. His duties in the Assembly preventing him from visiting his
own parish except occasionally, he accepted an invitation to be preacher in
Duke's Place, London, and afterwards the charge of a new church just built
in Westminster, where he had many of the members of the two Houses as his
regular hearers. In April 1644 he was made Master of Queen's College,
Cambridge ; which office he retained till his death in 1647, cetat. 46. He was
a man of small stature, very puny appearance, and delicate health. His
private means were considerable, —his father having been a Kentish Knight or
Baronet ; and one of his accomplishments was skill in French, in which
tongue he could speak or preach as well as in English. Before his appoint-
ment to the Vicarage of Ashwell, he had been for some years in Canterbury,
holding a special lectureship in one of the churches of that city, and once or
twice preaching also in French to the French congregation there. On one of
these occasions an "ancient French gentlewoman," when she saw him first
going into the pulpit, was so startled with his small size that she exclaimed
" Hola ! que nous dira cet enfant id 1 " — An interesting fact respecting Palmer,
recently discovered by the Rev. Dr. A. B. Grosart, is that he was the real author
of the "Christian Paradoxes," so long attributed to Lord Bacon, and printed
in the editions of Bacon's works, and on which so many speculations as to
Bacon's religious opinions have been based. See Dr. Grosart's Lord Bacon
not the Avt/ior of "The Christian Paradoxes" (1864), where there is much
July 1643.] LIST OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 521
information about Palmer. See also a memoir of him, with portrait, in
Clarke's Live* appended to hia General Marty rol<xji< (1677).
I'\>MI.KY, CHRISTOPHER, D.D. : of Hawardon, Flintshire.
PBALB, EDWARD : of Compton, Dorsetshire. — He seems to have died before Dec. 31,
1645 ; on which day the Commons appointed as his successor (confirmed by the
Lords Jan. 3, 1645-6) WILLIAM STRONG (Cantab.), Rector of More-Crichol,
Dorsetshire, then driven to London by the stress of the Civil War. lie was
afterwards minister of St. Dunstan s-in-the-West, and preacher in West-
minster Abbey. He died suddenly, July 1654, and was buried in the Abbey.
PBRNB, ANDREW (Cantab.): Rector of Wilby, Northamptonshire; cetat. 49. He
died 1654, <»/«/. 60.
PHILLIPS, JOHN : Rector of Wrentham, Suffolk.
PICKERING, BENJAMIN : Rector of East Hoathly, Sussex.
PRICE, WILLIAM : minister of St. Paul's, Covent Garden.
PROPHET, NICHOLAS : of Marlborough, Wilts.
PYNE, JOHN : Rector of Beer-Ferris, Devon.
REYNOLDS, EDWARD, M.A. (Oxon.): Rector of Braunston, Northamptonshire;
ittut. 44. He was in great repute as a Greek scholar and as a preacher,
though with a hoarse voice ; was a zealous Presbyterian and active member
of the Assembly ; and, on the Parliamentary Visitation of Oxford, when the
Royalist Heads of Colleges were turned out, he became Dean of Christchurch,
Vice-Chancellor of the University, and D. D. He persevered in his Puritanism
through the rest of the Commonwealth period ; but it was rather a surprise
when, after the Restoration, he conformed to the new order of things and let
himself be made Bishop of Norwich (Jan. 1, 1660-1). People attributed the
change to the influence of a politic wife. He died in 1676, wtat. 77.
RBYNOR, WILLIAM, B.D. (Cantab.): Vicar of Egham, Surrey.
SALWAY, ARTHUR, M.A. (Oxon.) : Rector of Severn Stoke, Worcestershire.
SAUNDBRSON, ROBERT, D.D. (Oxon.) : Chaplain in Ordinary to the King, and Regius
Professor of Divinity at Oxford. He never took his place in the Assembly,
but remained with the Ring, who held him in high regard and employed him
much. He was subsequently ejected from his Professorship by Parliament,
but was reinstated at the Restoration, and shortly afterwards promoted to
the Bishopric of Lincoln. Ho died Jan. 1662-3, «•/«/. 75, and, even had he
not figured in " Walton's Liven," would have been long remembered as one of
the ornaments of the Church of England. His Compendium of Logic had
been published in 1615, when he was but a young man.
SCUDDER, HENRY (Cantab.) : Rector of Collingbourn Ducis, Wilts.
SBAMAN, LAZARUS, B.D. (Cantab.): minister of Allhallows, Bread Street, London,—
the parish in which Milton had been born, and in the church of which ho had
been baptized. He was one of the four divines who were chosen to repre-
sent London in the Assembly. He had a great reputation as an Orientalist,
and "always carried about with him a small Plantin Hebrew Bible without
points." He was very active in the Assembly ; and was made Master of Peter-
house, Cambridge, on the Parliamentary Visitation of the University, 1644.
After the Restoration he was ejected from his Mastership. Ho died 1667,
leaving a valuable library.
SBDOWK K, OH APIAII, B.D. (Oxon.) : Vicar of Coggeshall, Essex ; «Y«/. 43. He wax
afterwards preacher at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and died Jan. 1667-8!
cetat. 57.
'SIMPSON, KIDKACH (Cantab.): preacher in London. Ho had been an exile in
Holland during the Laudian rule ; co-pastor there with Bridge to the English
in Rotterdam ; and had there imbibed the opinions that made him one of the
small party of " Independents " in the Assembly. Ho continued to preach
in London to an IndojKjnclunt congregation till 1650, when ho was made
Master of Pembroke H.-ill. < •.•ml.ridge. He died 1658.
SMITH, PETER, D.D. (Cantab.): Vicar of Barkway, Herts.
•A. WII.IIAM, M.A. (Cantab.): Rector of Hampden, Bucks (Hampden's
parish). He was one of the " Smectymnuans " ; was afterwards for a time
Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge; then minister of Hackney,- fn.in
which {wirish he was ejected after the Restoration. Ho died 1666.
STAUNTON, EDMUND, D.D. (Oxon.): Vicar of Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey;
atal. 42. On the Parliamentary Visitation «>f Oxford in 1648 he was made
President of Corpus Christi College ; but, being ejected at the Restoration,
retired into Herta, where he continued to preach till his death in 1671,
aint. 70.
522 LIFE OF MILTON AND IIISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
STERRY, PETER, B.D. (Cantab.). He had been a Fellow of Emanuel College,
Cambridge ; but was now a preacher in London. He was a special friend
of the younger Sir Harry Vane, and will be more heard of.
STYLES, MATTHIAS, D.D. : of St. George's, Eastcheap, London. He was chosen as
one of the representatives of Oxford University in the Assembly.
TAYLOR, FRANCIS, M.A. : Vicar (?) of Yalding, Kent. He was considered a
learned Orientalist ; and, after serving in the Assembly, he became preacher
in Canterbury, where he died after the Restoration.
TEMPLE, THOMAS, D.D. (Oxon.) : minister of Battersea, Surrey.
THOROUGHGOOD, THOMAS (Cantab.) : of Massingham, Norfolk.
TISDALE, CHRISTOPHER : of Uphurst-Bourne, Hants.
TOZER, HENRY, B.D. (Oxon.): Fellow of Exeter College in Oxford University ;
ct'tat. 41. He afterwards went to Rotterdam, where he became minister to
the company of English merchants, and died 1650, cetat. 48.
TUCKNEY, ANTHONY, D.D. (Cantab.) : Vicar of Boston in Lincolnshire ; cetat. 44.
He was made Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge, in 1644 ; was after-
wards Master of St. John's and Regius Professor of Divinity in the same
University ; but had to give up these offices at the Restoration. He died in
London, Feb. 1669-70 ; cetat. 71.
USHER, JAMES, D.D. : Archbishop of Armagh ; originally chosen for the Assembly
as one of the representatives of Oxford University. He did not go near the
Assembly, but remained with the King at Oxford. His appointment was con-
sequently cancelled Oct. 11, 1643, and in his stead there was appointed JOHN
BOND, of Exeter.
VALENTINE, THOMAS, B.D. : Rector of Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks.
VINES, RICHARD, M.A. (Cantab.) : of Calcott ; cetat. 43. He had been schoolmaster
of Hinckley in Leicestershire, and had had the satirist Cleveland among his
pupils (Vol. I. p. 186). He was a most active member of the Assembly ; very
powerful in debate, and "therefore called their Luther," says Fuller ; also
" an excellent preacher," and much respected on all accounts. He was made
Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in the Visitation of 1644, and was also
minister successively of several London parishes, — the last being St. Lawrence
Jewry. He died Feb. 1655-6. Only a week before his death, when he was
preaching in London, and was so weak in body that the power of his voice had
failed, a rude fellow in the congregation (the story is Fuller's) called out
"Lift up your voice, for I cannot hear you." Vines replied, "Lift up your
ears, for I can speak no louder."
WALKER, GEORGE, B.D. (Cantab.): Rector of St. John the Evangelist, Watling
Street, London. He was of considerable note as an Orientalist and logician ;
and his "Doctrine of the Holy Weekly Sabbath," published in 1641, was in
repute as an exposition of strict Sabbatarianism. He had been imprisoned,
and had otherwise suffered for his Puritanism, during Laud's rule. He was
first designated for the Assembly as one of the four representatives chosen
for the London clergy.
WARD, SAMUEL, D.D. (Cantab.): Master of Sidney-Sussex College (see Vol. I.
p. 118). He and Bishop Brownrigge were intended as representatives of
Cambridge University in the Assembly ; but he declined to attend ; was
ejected from his Mastership, and died soon after. — In his place in the
Assembly was appointed (Sept. 14, 1643) JOHN STRICKLAND, of New Sarum.
WELBY, JAMES: of Selattyn, Shropshire.
WKSTFIELD, THOMAS, D.D. (Cantab.): Bishop of Bristol; cetat. 70. Though a
Bishop, he did make his appearance in the Assembly ; and the Parliament
had such an esteem for him on account of this compliance that they gave
him a pass to Bristol, and allowed him to retain the profits of his Bishopric.
He died June 25, 1644, cetat. 71.
WHIDDON, FRANCIS, M.A. : Rector of Moreton-Hampstead, Devon.
WHITAKER, JEREMIAH, M.A. (Cantab.): Rector of Stretton, Rutlandshire; cetat. 44.
He was a man of learning, of high note among the Presbyterians (who
punned upon their two acres, Gather and Whitoler), and very active in the
Assembly. He was made Rector of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey ; was
incessant in preaching there and elsewhere, and died in 1654. Clarke in-
cludes him in his memoirs of Puritan divines appended to his Martyrologie
(1677).
WHITE, JOHN. M.A. (Oxon.) : Rector of Dorchester ; cetat. 68. He was a man of
so great influence in Dorchester, and among all the Puritan clergy around,
that he came to be known as " Patriarch White." He was one of the Assessors
July 1643.] LIST OF THK WKsTMINSTEK ASSEMBLY. 523
to the Prolocutor,— the other being Dr. Cornelius Burgee, whose sister he
had married. In 1644, when Dr. Foatley was ejected from the Rectory <>f
LamU-th. it was given to Mr. White, together with a grant of Dr. Featley's
library until his own library at Dorchester should be recovered from the
King'* troops. He died at Dorchester, July 1648, <>(,<(. 7-'*.
WIIKIN-.N. HKNKV. Son.. B.D. (Oxon.) : Rector of Waddesdon, Bucks; <,tut. 77.
Tlii-; venerable person, chosen on account of his being "an old Puritan,"
died March 1647-8, atat. 81.
WII.KIXMIX. HKXHY, .Inn., B.D. (Oxon.): one of the sons of the above ; attit. :M.
He had been a noted tutor and divinity reader in Magdalen Hall ; but, having
offended the University authorities by a Puritan sermon in 1640, he had been
susjKmded. Parliament afterwards removed the suspension and ordered the
sermon to be printed. Ho became minister of St. Faith's, and then of St.
DiinstanVin-the-West. in London; and was afterwards made Follow of
Magdalen, Canon of Christchurch, Margaret Professor of Divinity, ami
!>.!>. Ejected at the Restoration, he lived on as a preacher at Clapham till
l'->7.'>. He was "an excellent preacher," though his voice was "shrill and
whining." He was called " /,«»/,// Harry" to distinguish him from another
jKjrson of the same name, called Dean I furry, who lived till 1690. This
II 'i-ry was also a zealous Puritan and Parliamentarian; but he was
not a member of Assembly. There were, in fact, three Henry Wilkinsons
alive- in 1G1-'J, all Oxford men and all Parliamentarians. Neal has confounded
him/ Hurry with Demi Harry.
WILSON, THOMAS, M.A. (Cantab.) : Rector of Otham, Kent ; <rto/. 42. He had
formerly been minister of Maidstone, and had been suspended for Puritanism.
II. lived till 1651.
WiN.ni', .I..MN. D.D. : of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields, London.
WiN«.i>, THOMAS, D.D. : of Elsw6rth, Cambridgeshire.
THOMAS, M.A. (St. Andrews, Scotland): Vicar of Stowmarket, Suffolk :
alaf. 56. This is Milton's old preceptor, already so well known to us (Vol. I.
pp. 68-72, and 184-186). To his former merits among the Puritans of Eng-
land he had recently added that of being one of the "Smectymnuans," — in-
deed, as we have seen, the chief of that group of five. He was rewarded, in
1644, on the Parliamentary Visitation of Cambridge, with the Mastership of
Jesus College in that University ; on which occasion his St. Andrews degree
of M.A. was changed into a Cambridge one. While attending the Assembly
lie did duty as a preacher in Duke's Place, Aldgate, succeeding Mr. Herbert
Palmer in that charge when Palmer was transferred to the new church in
Westminster.
III. — LAY MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY.
A novelty in the Assembly, significant of the new spirit in
ecclesiastical matters that h-id «>me to prevail in England, was the
presence in it of a certain number of Lay Assessors, appointed by
Parliament, with the saim- rights of deliberation and voting that
belonged to the Divines. Indeed, in the Ordinance calling tin-
Assembly the names of the lay members are placed first. They
•JO in all, — ten from the House of Lords, and 20 from the
House of Commons. The following is a list of them, with asterisks
prefixed to the names of those that seem to have taken an etfV< ti\.
part in the proceed!
I'KI
• nit. llm.i \MI. * M.\M MI .NTKU, N"in m Mnrui AM>. PKMMKMKK
mil S\l mm \i\ ' rWAl aii-l *S.\VK and
: K and *\N II \ltT«'\ (In II •
of Bedford, Holland, ami < 'onway from tin- I'arli.inicntai ' i the
meeting »f tl,.- AswniMy, th« i n mid
Lord (JitKv 01 WAUK wn ted for tl,.-m : and tin- F.-irl of E88BX
was cuperadded ou his own account. .Ian. 1-
524
LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
COMMONERS.
BARRINGTON, SIR THOS. , Bart. On his
death, SIR WILLIAM MASHAM,
Bart., was substituted (Dec. 6,
1644).
CLOTWORTHY, SIR JOHN, Knt.
EVELYN, SIR JOHN, Knt.
*GLYNN, JOHN.
MAYNARD, JOHN.
PIERREPOINT, WILLIAM.
PRIDEAUX, EDMUND.
PYM, JOHN. On his death *SiR ROBERT
HARLEY was substituted (Dec. 15,
1643).
*Rous, FRANCIS.
*RUDYARD, SIR BENJAMIN, Knt.
*ST. JOHN, OLIVER.
*SALWAY, HUMPHREY.
*SELDEN, JOHN.
VANE, SIR HENRY, Sen., Knt.
*VANE, SIR HENRY, Jun., Knt.
WHEELER, WILLIAM.
WHITE, JOHN. On his death WILLIAM
STRODE was substituted.
*WHITLOCKE, BULSTRODE.
WYLDE, JOHN.
YOUNG, WALTER.
Two Commoners superadded, to keep the proportion even between the two
Houses, at the time when the Peers superadded Essex (Jan. 3, 1643-4), were SIR
ARTHUR HASELRIG, Bart., and ROBERT REYNOLDS.!
Such was the famous WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, called
together by the Parliament of England to consider the entire
state of the country in matters of Religion. The business
entrusted to it was vast and complex. It was to revise and
re-define the national creed, after its long lapse into so-called
Arminianism and semi-Popish error, and to advise also as to
1 The preparation of this List of the
Members of the Westminster Assembly
has been a task of considerable labour ;
and, with all my pains, I cannot certify
that it is perfectly correct. — The basis
is the list of the members originally
appointed by the Ordinance as given
in the Lords Journals under date June
12, 1643. But the names are very care-
lessly printed there, and are accom-
panied with very scanty indications re-
specting the persons to whom they
belong. Later entries both in the Lords
Journals and in those of the Commons
supply the names of members added
from time to time. In Neal's History of
the Puritans there is a list of the original
and superadded members of the Assem-
bly (edit. 1795, Vol. III. pp. 50-54) ;
but in that list there are many errors.
Prefixed to Notes of the proceedings of the
Westminster Assembly by George Gillespie
(edited from the MSS. by David Meek :
Edin. 1846) there are various lists which
I have found useful. But, all in all, I
have had to check these lists, and rectify
the names both of persons and parishes,
by independent research, and especially
by reference, in every possible case, to
Anthony Wood's Athence et Fasti Ox-
onienses. — For the biographical par-
ticulars appended to most of the names
my authorities have been various.
Neal's notices of eminent Noncon-
formists, scattered through his History
of tfie Puritans, have, of course, been
consulted. But, in many cases, these
notices are simply scraps from Wood ;
and I have gone, in these cases, to
Wood himself. In that great store-
house there is information not only
about most of the Oxford men, but
also (though indirectly) about some of
the Cambridge men. Alas that Mr.
Cooper did not live long enough to add
a volume or two more to the two pub-
lished volumes of his Athence Canta-
brlyienses ! As it is, I have ranged for
particulars about the Cambridge men
in various other quarters, — including
Fuller's Worthies, his Church History,
&c. Baillie's Letters have furnished me
with some items ; also Lightfoot's Notes
of the Westminster Assembly (Works :
Vol. XIII.). Hetherington's History of
the Westminster Assembly (Edin. 1843) is
very slight. — The original Minutes of
the Assembly by the Scribes are pre-
served in Williams's Library, London ;
and transcripts of them, procured by
a Committee of the General Assem-
bly of the Church of Scotland, were
published in 1874 under the editorship
of the Rev. Dr. Alex. F. Mitchell and
the Rev. Dr. John Struthers. The
Westminster Assembly : its History and
Standards is the title of an independent
book by Dr. Mitchell, published in 1883.
July 1643.] MEETING OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 525
the new system of Church government and the new forms of
worship that should come in place of rejected Episcopacy
and the condemned Liturgy. For it was still, be it remem-
bered, the universal notion among English politicians that
there must be a National Church, and that no man, woman,
or child within the land should be permitted to be out of the
pale of that Church. It was still the notion that it was pos-
sible to frame a certain number of propositions respecting
God, Heaven, Angels, Hell, Devils, the Creation of the
Universe, the Soul of Man, Sin and its remedy, a life beyond
Death, and all the other most tremendous subjects of human
contempktion, that should be absolutely true, or at least so
just and sure a compendium of truth that the nation must
be tied up to it, and it would be wrong to allow any man,
woman, or child, subject to the law of England, to be astray
from it in any item. This was the notion, and those 149
persons were appointed to frame the all-important proposi-
tions, or find them out by a due revision of the old Articles,
and to report to Parliament on that subject, as well as on the
subjects of Church organization and Forms of Worship.
The appointment, among the original 149 or 150 members
of Assembly,1 of such persons as Archbishop Usher, Bishops
Brownrigge and Westfield, Featley, Hacket, Hammond, Holds-
worth, Morley, Nicolson, Saunderson, and Samuel Ward, —
all of them defenders of an Episcopacy of some kind, — seems
hardly reconcilable with the very terms of the Ordinance
calling the Assembly. That Ordinance implied that Epis-
copacy was condemned and done with, and it convoked the
Assembly for the express purpose of considering, among other
things, what should be put in its stead. It may have been
thought, however, that it would impart a more liberal and
eclectic character to the Assembly to send a sprinkling of
1 Some vigilant reader may have named in the Ordinance of Juno 1643,
taken the trouble of counting my list he certainly was in the Assembly
of the original members of Assembly, almost, if not altogether, from the first
and observed that they are not 149 but (Baillio, II, 110). Thu Ordinance may
150. This in accounted fur by my have intended n total of 160 (120 divines
having included I'KTBK STKUIIY among and 30 laymen) ; and the omission of
the divines. He had been one of the S terry's name in the copy in the Lords
fourteen divines proposed by the Lords Journals may be accidental,
in May 1642; and, though he is not
526 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
known Anglicans into it ; or it may have been thought right
to give some of the most respected of these an opportunity of
retrieving themselves by acquiescing in what they could not
prevent.1 As it chanced, however, the refusal of most of
these to appear in the Assembly at all, and the all but
immediate dropping-off of the one or two who did appear at
first, saved the Assembly much trouble. It became thus a
compact body, fit for its work, and in the main of one mind
and way of thinking on some of the problems submitted
to it.
In respect of theological doctrine, for example, the As-
sembly, as it was then left, was practically unanimous. They
were, almost to a man, Calvinists, or Anti-Arininians, pledged
by their antecedents to such a revision of the Articles as
should make the national creed more distinctly Calvinistic
than before. Moreover, they were agreed as to their method
for determining doctrine. It was to be the rigid application
of the Protestant principle that the Bible is the sole rule of
Faith. The careful interpretation of Scripture, — i.e. the col-
lecting, on any occasion of discussion, of all the texts in the
Old and New Testaments bearing on the point discussed, and
the examination of these texts singly and in their connexion,
and in the original tongues when necessary, so as to ascertain
their exact sense : this was the understood rule with them
all. Learning was, indeed, in demand, and the chief scholars,
especially the chief Hebraists and Eabbinists, of the Assembly
were much looked up to : there might be references also to
the Fathers and to Councils ; no kind of historical lore but
would be welcome : only all must subserve the one purpose
of interpreting Scripture ; and Fathers, Councils, and what
not, could be cited not as authorities, but only as witnesses.
This understanding as to the determination of doctrine by the
1 It ought to be remembered too that did so only in consequence of the
all these persons had been nominated "large testimony of him" given by
for the Assembly more than a year divers of the Lords, who desired the
before it actually met, and while the Commons not to "put that disgrace
war had not yet begun. It was with upon him " of refusing him after he had
difficulty even then that the Commons been nominated (Commons Journals,
accepted Dr. Hammond among the June 1, 1642).
fourteen nominees of the Lords. They
July 1643.] MEETING OF THK WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 527
Bible alone, accompanied as it was by a nearly unanimous
pre-conviction that it was the Calvinistic body of doctrines
alone that could be reasoned out of the Bible, was to keep the
Assembly, I repeat, pretty much together from the first in
mailers of creed and theology. For perplexing questions as
to the extent and limits of the inspiration of the Bible had
not yet publicly arisen to invalidate the accepted method.
Thi'i-e were the germs of such questions in the theological
mind of England, as elsewhere in Europe ; and they were
perhaps not unrepresented in the thoughts of some in the
Assembly. The conditions were, however, such as to crush
such thoughts down into secrecy. Only in one form perhaps
was there known to be represented by some few in the
Assembly a principle of Biblical interpretation that might
possibly lead to differences of theology and to deviations from
( 'alvinism. This was the principle of the " Inner Light," or
an intuition of Divine Truth, by the gift of the Spirit, in eacli
individual heart. This principle, not being in conflict with
the cardinal maxim of Protestantism respecting the Bible,
could hardly be directly opposed ; but dangers from it were
foreseen. For, once let this " Inner Light " be the best
interpreter of Scripture, and the standard of sound doctrine
would no longer be the distinct objective standard of what
the Bible says, but would tend rather to shift itself into
each man's constitutional fervours and excitements playing
over the Bible in the vague, or over what in it pleased
him best
It was, however, only or mainly on the question of Church
Government that the Assembly knew itself from the first to
U- divided into parties. Or, rather, it was on this question
that the Assembly, more distinctly than it could have fore-
seen at first, did divide itself into parties. But that is a story
for our next Volume, and for which the remainder of this
Volume must be regarded meanwhile as an absolutely
necessary preparation.
BOOK IV.
ENGLISH PBESBYTERIANISM AND ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY
THEIR HISTORY TO 1643.
VOL. II 2 M
BOOK IV.
ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANISM AND ENQLI8H INDEPENDENCY :
THKIR HISTORY TO 1643.
Ax the time of the meeting of the Westminster Assembly
there was a tradition in the Puritan mind of England of two
varieties of opinion as to the form of Church government
and discipline that should be substituted for Episcopacy.
ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANISM.
In the first place, there was a tradition of the system
of views known as PRESBYTERIANISM : — From the beginning
of Elizabeth's reign, if not earlier, there had been Noncon-
formists who held that some form of the consistorial model
which Calvin had set up in Geneva, and which Knox
enlarged for Scotland, was the best for England too. Thus
Fuller, who dates the use of the term " Puritans," as a
ni« kname for the English Nonconformists generally, from
the year 1564, and who goes on to say that within a few
years after that date the chief of those to whom that term was
first applied were either dead or very aged, adds : " Behold
" another generation of active and zealous Nonconformists
" succeeded them : of these Coleman, Button, Halingham,
" and Benson (whose Christian names I cannot recover)
" were the chief ; inveighing against the established Church-
" discipline, accounting everything from Home that was not
" from Geneva, endeavouring in all things to conform the
" Government of the English Church to the Presbyteii.m
Actually, in 1572, Fuller proceeds to tell
532 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
us, a Presbytery, the first in England, was set up at Wands-
worth in Surrey ; i.e. in that year a certain number of
ministers of the Church of England organized themselves
privately, without reference to Bishops or other authorities,
into a kind of Presbyterial consistory, or classical court,
for the management of the Church-business of their neigh-
bourhood. The heads of this Presbyterian movement, which
gradually extended itself to London, were Mr. Field, lecturer
at Wandsworth, Mr. Smith of Mitchain, Mr. Crane of Eoe-
hampton, Messrs. Wilcox, Standen, Jackson, Bonham, Saintloe,
Travers, Charke, Barber, Gardiner, Crook, and Egerton ; with
whom were associated a good many laymen. A summary of
their views on the subject of Church government was drawn
out in Latin, under the title Disciplina Ecclesice Sacra ex Dei
Verio descripta, and, though it had to be printed at Geneva,
became so well known that, according to Fuller, " secundum
" usum Wandsworth was as much honoured by some as
" secundum usum Sarum by others."
The English Presbyterianism thus asserting itself and
spreading found its ablest and most energetic leader in the
famous Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603). No less by practical
ingenuity than by the pen, he laboured for Presbytery ; and
under his direction Prebyterianism attained such dimensions
that, between 1580 and 1590, there were no fewer than 500
beneficed clergymen of the Church of England, most of them
Cambridge men, all pledged to general agreement in a revised
form of the Wandsworth Directory of Discipline, all in private
intercommunication among themselves, and all meeting
occasionally, or at appointed times, in local conferences, or
even in provincial and general synods. In addition to
London, the parts of the country thus most leavened with
Presbyterianism were the shires of Warwick, Northampton,
Rutland, Leicester, Cambridge, and Essex. Of course, such an
anomaly, of a Presbyterian organization of ministers existing
within the body of the Prelatic system established by law,
and to the detriment or disintegration of that system, could
not be tolerated ; and, when Whitgift had procured sufficient
information to enable him to seize and prosecute the chiefs,
ENGLI>H I'i;i:si;V!Kl;iANISM : 1564—1643.
it was, in fact, stamped out. But the recollection of Cart-
wright and of Presbyterian principles remained in the Eng-
lish mind through the reigns of James and Charles, and
characterised the main mass of the more effective and re-
spectable Puritanism of those reigns. In other words, most
of those Puritans, whether ministers or of the laity, who
still continued members of the Church, only protesting
against some of its rules and ceremonies, conjoined with this
nonconformity in points of worship a dissatisfaction with
the Prelatic constitution of the Church, and a willingness to
see the order of Bishops removed, and the government of the
Church remodelled on the Presbyterian system of parochial
courts, classical or district meetings, provincial synods, and
national assemblies. During the supremacy of Laud, indeed,
when any such wholesale revolution seemed hopeless, it is
possible that English Puritanism within the Church had
abandoned in some degree its dreamings over the Presby-
terian theory, and had sunk, through exhaustion, into mere
sidings after a relaxation of the established Episcopacy. But
the success of the Presbyterian Kevolt of the Scots in 1638,
and their continued triumph in the two following years, had
worked wonders. All the remains of native Presbyterian
tradition in England had been kindled afresh, and new
masses of English Puritan feeling, till then acquiescent in
Episcopacy, had been whirled into a passion for Presbytery
and nothing else. When the Long Parliament, at its first
meeting (Nov. 1640), addressed itself to the question of a
Reform of the English Church, the force that beat against
its doors most strongly from the outside world of English
opinion consisted, as we have seen, no longer of mere
siblings after a limitation of Episcopacy, but of a formed
determination of myriads to have done with Episcopacy
root and branch, and to see a Church government substituted
somewhat after the Scottish pattern. What were the dimen-
HMII- of this n-vivcd English Pivsliyterianisin at that date,
both among the clergy and among the laity, we have ali< idy
tried to estimate (ante, pp. 199, 200).
T\VM vears mi. re of di>rus>ion in and out of Parliament
534 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
had vastly enlarged those dimensions. The passion for
Presbytery among the English laity had pervaded all the
counties ; and scores and hundreds of parish-ministers who
had kept as long as they could within the limits of mere
Low-Church Anglicanism, and had stood out, in their private
reasonings, for the lawfulness and expediency of an order
of officers in the Church superior to that of simple Pres-
byters, if less lordly than the Bishops, had been swept out
of their scruples, and had joined themselves, even heartily,
to the Presbyterian current. Thus, when the Westminster
Assembly met (July 1643), to consider, among other things,
what form of Church government the Parliament should be
advised to establish in England in lieu of the Episcopacy
which it had been resolved to abolish, the injunction almost
universally laid upon them by already-formed opinion
among the Parliamentarians of England, whether laity or
clergy, out of the Assembly, seemed to be that they should
recommend conformity with Scottish Presbytery. All the
citizenship, all the respectability, of London, for example, was
resolutely Presbyterian; and of the 120 parish -ministers
of the city, surrounding the Assembly, only three, so far
as could be ascertained, were not of strict Presbyterian
principles.1
ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY : 1. BROWNISH AND THE FIRST
BROWNISTS (1580 — 1592).
Nevertheless, amid all this apparent prevalence of Pres-
byterianism, there was a stubborn tradition in England of
another set of Anti-Prelatic views, long stigmatized by the
nickname of BROWNISM, but known latterly as INDEPEND-
ENCY or CONGREGATIONALISM.
Independents and Presbyterians are quite agreed in main-
taining that the terms ' Bishop/ or Overseer, and ' Presbyter/
or Elder, were synonymous in the pure or primitive Church,
and applied indifferently to the same persons, and that Prelacy
1 Fuller's Church History (edit. 1842). 295-6, 39]- 2. and 422-3; Hallam's
II. 480-81, 505, and III. 105-121; Const. Hist (10th edit.). I. 207 ; Baillie,
Neal's Puritans (edit. 1793), I. 265-6, II. 192.
KN'.LlsH INDEPEM>KN< V : BROWMSM.
.UK! all its developments were subsequent corruptions. The
peculiar tenet of Independency, distinguishing it from Presby-
teriauism, consists in something else. It consists in the belief
that the only organization recognised in the primitive Church
•hut <>f the voluntary association of believers into local
congregations, each choosing its own office -bearers and
managing its own affairs, independently of neighbouring
congregations, though willing occasionally to hold friendly
conferences with such neighbouring congregations, and to
profit by the collective advice. Gradually, it is asserted, this
right or hubit of occasional friendly conference between
neighbouring congregations had been mismanaged and abused,
until the true independency of each voluntary society of
Christians was forgotten, and authority came to be vested in
Synods or Councils of the office-bearers of the churches of a
district or province. This usurpation of power by Synods or
Councils, it is said, was as much a corruption of the primitive
Church-discipline as was Prelacy itself, or the usurpation of
power by eminent individual Presbyters, assuming the name
of ' Bishops ' in a new sense. Nay, the one usurpation had
prepared the way for the other ; and, especially after the
establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire by the
civil power, the two usurpations had gone on together, until
the Church became a vast political machinery of Councils,
smaller or larger, regulated by a hierarchy of Bishops, Arch-
bishops, and Patriarchs, all pointing to the Popedom. The
error of the Presbyterians, it is maintained, lies in their not
iving this natural and historical connexion of the two
usurpations, and so retaining the Synodical tyranny while
they would throw off the Prelatic. Not having recovered the
true original idea of an ecclesia as consisting simply of a society
of individual Christians meeting together periodically and
united by a voluntary compact, while the great invisible
( 'liurch of a nation or of the world consists of the whole
multitude of such mutually-independent societies harmo-
niously moved by the un- •• -n Spirit present in all, Presby-
terians, it is Said, substitute th«- more mechanical image of a
visible rullrrtivr. Church f<>r each community or nation, try to
536 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
perfect that image by devices borrowed from civil polity, and
find the perfection they seek in a system of National Assem-
blies, Provincial Synods, and district Courts of Presbyters,
superintending and controlling individual congregations. In-
dependency, on the other hand, would purify the aggregate
Church to the utmost, by throwing off the Synodical tyranny
as well as the Prelatic, and restoring the complete power of
discipline to each particular church or society of Christians
formed in any one place.
So, I believe, though with varieties of expression, English
Independents argue now. But, while they thus seek the
original warrant for their views in the New Testament and in
the practice of the primitive Church, and while they maintain
also that the essence of those views was rightly revived in old
English Wycliffism, and perhaps in some of the speculations
which accompanied Luther's Reformation on the Continent,
they admit that the theory of Independency had to be worked
out afresh by a new process of the English mind in the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, and they are content, I
believe, that the crude immediate beginning of that process
should be sought in the opinions propagated, bet ween 1580 and
1590, by the erratic Robert Brown, a Rutlandshire man, bred
at Cambridge, who had become a preacher at Norwich. Here
and there in England by his tongue during those ten years,
and sometimes by pamphlets in exile, Brown, who could boast
that he had been " committed to thirty-two prisons, in some
of which he could not see his hand at noon-day," and who
escaped the gallows only through some family connexion
he had with the all-powerful Lord Burleigh, had preached
doctrines far more violently schismatic than those of Cart-
wright and the majority of the Puritans. His attacks on
Bishops and Episcopacy were boundlessly fierce ; and the
duty of separation in toto from the Church of England, the
right of any number of persons to form themselves into a
distinct congregation, the mutual independence of congre-
gations so formed, and the liberty of any member of a
congregation to preach or exhort in it, were among his
leading tenets. At length, tiring of the tempest he had
iLISH INDEPENDENCY : BROWNISM 537
raised around him, he accepted a living in Northampton-
shire ; and, though he is not known to have ever formally
recanted any of his opinions, he lived on in his parsonage
till as late as 1630, when Fuller knew him as a passionate
and rather disreputable old man of eighty, employing a
curate to do his work, quarrelling with everybody, and
refusing to pay his rates. Meanwhile the opinions which
ho hud propagated fifty years before had passed through a
singular history in the minds and lives of men of steadier
and more persevering character. For, though Brown himself
had vanished from public view since 1590, the Brownists, or
Separatists, as they were called, had persisted in their course,
through execration and persecution, as a sect of outlaws
beyond the pale of ordinary Puritanism, and with whom
moderate Puritans disowned connexion or sympathy. One
hears of considerable numbers of them in the shires of
Norfolk and Essex, and throughout Wales ; and there was
a central association of them in London, holding con-
venticles in the fields, or shifting from meeting-house to
meeting-house in the suburbs, so as to elude Whitgift's
ecclesiastical police. At length, in 1592, the police broke
in upon one of the meetings of the London Brownists at
Islington; fifty-six of these were thrown into divers jails;
and, some of the Separatist leaders having been otherwise
arrested, there ensued a vengeance far more ruthless than
tin- ( iovernment dared against Puritans in general. Six of
the leaders were brought to the scaffold, including Henry
Barrowe, a Gray's Inn lawyer (of such note among those
early P»n»\vi lists by his writings that they were also called
Barrowists), John Greenwood, a preacher, and the poor
young Welshman, John iVnry, whose brave and simple
words on his own hard case, addressed before his death to
Lord Burli'igh, thrill one's nerves yet. All these were of
< 'ainhrid^e training, though iVnry had also been at Oxford.
others died in prison: and of the remainder many were
l>.mi>ln •«!. Amon--,' the observers of those severities was
l-'niueis Bacon, then rNni: into eminence as a politician
and lawy.-i II;- feeling 00 tin- -uhjeet was thus expressed
538 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
at the time : " As for those which we call Brownists, being,
" when they were at the most, a very small number of very
" silly and base people, here and there in corners dispersed,
" they are now (thanks be to God) by the good remedies
" that have been used suppressed and worn out, so as there
" is scarce any news of them." Bacon, doubtless, here
expressed the feeling of all that was respectable in English
society. For not only was it the theory of Brownism
intrinsically that the Church of England was a false
Church, an institution of Antichrist, from which all
Christians were bound to separate themselves ; but the
scurrilities against the Bishops that had been vented
anonymously by some particular nest of Brown ists, or their
allies, in the famous series of Martin Marprelate Tracts
(1589) had disgusted and enraged many who would have
tolerated moderate Nonconformity.1
ENGLISH [NDEPENDENCY : II. THE ENGLISH SEPARATISTS IN
HOLLAND (1592 — 1620).
Bacon was in error in supposing that Brownism was
extinguished. Hospitable Holland received and sheltered
what England cast out. Amsterdam was their first refuge.
Thither, between 1593 and 1608, there migrated gradually
a little colony of English Brownists, distinct from the
resident Church of England men and the Scottish Presby-
terians who were pretty numerous in the city. They were
pious, mutually critical, and full of a ferment of they knew
not what. History has preserved the names of only the
chiefs, the elected pastors and teachers, of those Brownist
outcasts in Amsterdam ; but they are names not to be
forgotten.
1 Fuller's Church History, III. 62— 206 ; Wilson's History of Dissenting
66; Neal's Puritans, I. 328 — 333, and Churches and Meeting-houses in London
468—486 ; Hanbury's Historical Memo- (1808), I. 13—20 ; Bacon's Observations
rials relating to the Independents, on a Libel (1592), in Bacon's Letters
Vol. I. (1839) pp. 18—83 ; Fletcher's and Life by Speddin^, Vol. I. p. 165.
History of Independency (1847), II. 97—
IXDKI'KXDENCY: THE ANGLO-DUTCH SEPARATISTS. 539
Francis Johnson, who had been pastor of the suppressed
London congregation, and the friend of Barrowe, Greenwood,
and Penry, was the first pastor of the Amsterdam congrega-
tion of Brownists, and was assisted by Henry Ainswnrth,
as doctor or teacher. Johnson was of Cambridge education,
and had been in orders in the Church of England. Of
Ainsworth's antecedents nothing is known ; which is the
more to be regretted as he was, by universal consent, the
most profoundly learned of all the Brownists, and a man
of fine character and zeal. He turns up in Amsterdam in
1593, " living upon ninepeuce a week and some boiled roots,"
but recommending himself to the booksellers and printers
by his knowledge of Hebrew. Later arrivals in Amsterdam
than he and Johnson were these : John Smyth, who had been
a clergyman in Lincolnshire before joining the Brownists ;
Henry Jacob, of Oxford training, who had been a clergyman
in Kent ; Richard Clifton, formerly rector of Babworth in
Nottinghamshire, and then a Separatist preacher at Scrooby
in the same county ; and John Robinson, educated at Cam-
bridge, and first a clergyman in Norwich, and then Clifton's
colleague at Scrooby. . Thus in 1608 there were six Separatist
or Brownist ministers altogether in Amsterdam.
The six proved too many for one town. There were splits
and controversies among them on this point or that, Smyth
in particular tending to Arminianism and Anabaptism.
Hence at length a dispersion. Ainsworth persevered in
Amsterdam, preaching, publishing, and highly respected, till
his death in 1622 ; Clifton also remained in Amsterdam,
where he died in 1616 ; Johnson, after remaining for some
time in Amsterdam in opposition to Ainsworth, removed to
Emden, where there is little further trace of him or his
congregation; Jacob went to Middleburg; and Smyth and
Robinson went to Leyden, though Smyth retained some
hold on Amsterdam. These two last may be followed a
little farther. They represented between them the split
that had already begun to declare itself among the English
Brownists in Holland.— The essence of the question
seems to have been whether that original tenet of Brown ism
540 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
should be retained in its full vehemence which denounced
the Church of England as an utterly false and abomin-
able Church, all whose ordinances were null and void. It
was mainly this tenet that made the difference between the
moderate Puritans or Presbyterians and the Brownists ; and
the latter were called Separatists on account of it. Now,
Smyth, adhering to the tenet, had pushed it to a logical
consequence not ventured on by the Separatists before him.
If the ordination of the Church of England were rejected,
so that her ministers had to be reordained when they became
pastors and teachers of Separatist congregations, why was
the baptism of the Church of England accounted valid,
why were not members of that Church rebaptized when
they became Separatists ? Through the prosecution of this
query, aided by other investigations, Smyth had developed
his Separatism into the form known as Anabaptism, not
only requiring the rebaptism of members of the Church of
England, but rejecting the baptism of infants altogether,
and insisting on immersion as the proper Scriptural form
of the rite. " The Separation," he wrote, " must either go
" back to England, or go forward to true Baptism : all that
" shall in time to come separate from England must separate
" from the baptism of England ; and, if they will not separate
" from the baptism of England, there is no reason why they
" should separate from England as from a false Church." It
was even said that Smyth, to make sure there should be no
flaw in his own baptism, had performed the rite on himself ;
and he accordingly figures in satires of the time as " Smyth, the
Se-baptist." Certain it is that the obscure congregation he
formed in Ley den, or shifted between Amsterdam and Ley den,
was one of extreme Separatists, who were also Baptists,
and with peculiarities besides in their doctrines and wor-
ship. Of this congregation he was pastor till his death in
1610, when he was succeeded by a Thomas Helwisse, one
of their oldest members, a plain man, of pragmatic notions,
and quite self-taught. — —Meanwhile, side by side with
Smyth, and in constant controversy with him on Baptism
and other points of difference, John Eobinson had formed
INDEPENDENCY: THE ANGLO-DUTCH SEPARATISTS. 541
in I. «\. Icn a much more flourishing congregation on broader
principles. Robinson's place in the history of Independency
is, indeed, especially important. Though he seems to have
been a rigid Brownist or Barrowist when he went into
exile, a natural breadth and liberality of mind, and farther
study and experience, had led him to a more moderate view
of the duty and rights of Separation. While holding that
the errors and defects of the Church of England and of the
other Reformed Churches were so serious as to justify and
require the formation of separate congregations, he would
not join the extreme Separatists in denying that these were
true Churches ; on the contrary, he defended and practised
Christian intercourse with them as far as might be. " For
" myself," he wrote, " thus I believe with my heart before
" God, and profess with my tongue before the world : That I
" have one and the same faith, hope, spirit, baptism, and
" Lord, which I had in the Church of England, and none
" other ; that I esteem so many in that Church, of what
" state and order soever, as are truly partakers of that faith
" (as I account many thousands to be) for my Christian
" brethren, and myself a fellow-member with them of that
" mystical Body of Christ scattered far and wide throughout
" the world." Hence he would attend Church of England
places of worship, if no other were at hand, with the fullest
friendliness and affection, and he would admit members of
that Church to communion in prayer and hearing the Word,
though not in express "Church-actions." Henry Jacob had
taken a similar view of the question of Separation ; but
Robinson's advocacy was so much more public that it was
identified with him, and he was spoken of as the author
of a theory which might be called Semi-Separatism. Then,
• MI various points, he helped to give dignity and precision
to tin? system of the Separatist Church-discipline, till then
(ailed Brownism. That name he abjured, and advised all
I herents to abjure, as a mere term of obloquy, tending
to conceal the claim of their system to an authority in
Scripture and in the history of the Primitive Church.
He argued that claim afresh. " He maintained that every
542 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" church or society of Christians had complete power within
" itself to choose its own officers, to administer all Gospel-
" ordinances, and to exercise all acts of authority and dis-
" cipline over its members ; consequently that it was inde-
" pendent upon all classes, synods, convocations, and councils.
" He allowed, indeed, the expediency of these grave as-
" semblies for reconciling differences among churches, and
" giving their friendly advice, but not for the exercise of
" any authority without the free consent of the churches
" themselves." In a still more intricate question, which
had arisen among the Anglo-Dutch Independents, Eobinson
had assisted to a decision. Within each congregation or
society of Christians, where should the power lie, or how
should it be distributed ? After the members had elected
their officers, was the power to be in those officers, as
the congregational eldership or presbytery, or was the voice
of the whole body of the members still, in the last resort, to
determine all matters affecting the congregation, including the
deposition of officers ? A strife having occurred on this vital
question in the Amsterdam congregation, Eobinson from
Leyden had suggested a practical compromise, but still on the
principle that the power in each congregation belonged
ultimately to the whole body of the members. In this
view he had Ainsworth with him, and also Jacob ; and it
passed as an accepted article into the creed of Independency.
In short, so active was Eobinson in writing and scheming
as well as in preaching, so powerful were his qualities of
head and heart, and so strongly did he impress himself
in all ways upon the new Church-discipline forming itself
among the English exiles in the Dutch towns, that he is
regarded to this day as the real founder of modern Inde-
pendency, or Congregationalism proper. He died at Leyden,
March 1, 1624-5, at the age of fifty years, greatly regretted
not only by his own people, but also by all the Dutch of
the city.1
1 Hanbury's Memorials of Indepen- Dissenting Churches of London, I.
dents, I. 83—389, and 457—463; 18— 36 ; Ivimey's History of the English
Fletcher's History of Independency, II. Baptists, Vol. I. (1811) pp. 113—122 ;
207-291, and III. 1—26 ; Wilson's Neal's Puritans, II. 43-49.
IN DEPENDENCY: LONDON SEPARATIST CHURCHES. 543
l.N<;i.ISH INDKI'KNDENCY : — III. SEPARATIST CONGREGATIONS IN
LONDON, ETC. (1610—1632).
While Holland was thus sheltering the Separatists, extend-
ing to them the same hospitality that she gave to the Pres-
byterian exiles from Scotland and England who also lived
in her towns, and nursing their principles into theory and
system, and affording them room even for schisms and differ-
ences among themselves, England was not quite rid of them.
Through the reign of James their pamphlets and treatises
were imported from Holland, and kept up the excitement
about what was still called Brownism. Their divisions and
controversies among themselves were heard of with satisfaction
by orthodox Church-of-England men, and even by moderate
Puritans, as proving to the world the ruinous tendency of
their main principle of Separation ; and Smyth's lapse into
Anabaptism and other heresies was dilated on half with
glee and half with horror. Among the chief denouncers of
the Brownists was Bishop Hall, not yet Bishop, but only
rector of a parish in Essex. His Common Apologie of the
Church of England against the Brownists, published in 1610,
was but one of several writings of his on this subject. In
one of these, addressing Smyth and Kobinson as " ringleaders
of the late Separation," he bids them compare the England
they had left with the new country they had chosen. " Lo !
there a common harbour of all opinions, of all heresies : here
" you drew in the free and clear air of the Gospel, without
" that odious composition of Judaism, Arianism, Anabaptum :
" there you live in the stench of these and more." Nor was
tlii- mere fighting with windmills. Although the more
prominent Separatists had been driven abroad, wrecks of their
l<'lln\vin<j had remained in England, meeting secretly in
conventicles as they had done in Elizabeth's time, and
giving trouble to Aivlil.islmp Bancroft, the diocesans, and the
civil authorities. At length, the strict Baiicp.lt h;r
544 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
succeeded in the Primacy by the comparatively mild Abbot
(1611), two bands of the exiled Separatists ventured to re-
turn from Holland and form congregations in London. First,
in or about 1611, there came over the broken remains of
Smyth's Leyden or Amsterdam sect of extreme Separatists
or Baptists, led by their new pastor, Thomas Helwisse, and
by an assistant of his, named John Murton. Thus was
formed, in some obscure retreat in London, the exact place
not ascertained, if indeed there was any fixed place, what
is now regarded as the first society of General Baptists
in England, i.e. of those Baptists who profess a theology
rather Arminian than Calvinistic. About five years later,
or in 1616, Mr. Henry Jacob returned from Middleburg
with some of his friends, and, after much consultation,
established in London another Congregationalist church, on
the milder principles of Separatism agreed upon between
him and Eobinson. This, accordingly, is generally spoken
of as the first Independent church in London, though Hel-
wisse's Baptist church, in respect of its discipline, was also
on the Independent principle. Jacob continued to be pastor
of the church which he had founded till 1624, when he
emigrated to America at the age of over sixty, leaving as
his successor a John Lathorp, a Cambridge man, who had
renounced orders in the Church of England. The difficulties
of Lathorp and his little congregation increased after Charles
had come to the throne, and especially after Laud had become
Bishop of London (1628). For a year or two they contrived,
by shifting their places of meeting, to avoid detection ; but
at length, April 29, 1632, they were pounced upon by Laud's
officers in a house in Blackfriars, and forty-two of them,
including Lathorp, were thrown into prison. Laud's influence
in Church and State being supreme, and even moderate Puri-
tanism or Presbyterianism being under ban, it seemed a
fortiori as if Independency or Separatism would be stamped
out in England, and there would be no refuge for it but in
Holland.1
1 Hanbury's Memorials, I. 185 et seq. ; don, I. 30, and 39, 40 ; Ivimey's Bap-
Wilson's Dissenting Churches in Lon- tists, I. 122, and II. 503—506.
NEW ENGLAND AND ITS CHURCH. 545
KN'iLlsH INI»KPKNI»KNCY: — IV. THE NEW ENGLAND EMIGRA-
TION, AND CHURCH OF NEW ENGLAND (1620— 1640).
Not so ! Populous Holland, with its towns and canals,
was still at hand ; but there was now another and wider
refuge for Separatists, and for persecuted opinions of all sorts,
in the world beyond the Atlantic.
" Why do you not take yourselves off to Virginia ? " had
been the taunt to the more troublesome English Puritans
almost from the beginning of the reign of James, when much
of the coast-line of the present United States was still
vaguely known by the name of Virginia, originally given to it
by Raleigh. Some Puritans had actually been among the first
settlers in this Virginia in 1608, and more would have gone
if they had not been stopped by Bancroft. Not till about
1 6 1 7, by which time what had been called " North Virginia "
had begun to acquire the special name of NEW ENGLAND, does
the notion of a colonization of those parts by Puritans in the
mass appear to have dawned fully on any mind. It dawned
first among the English Independents in exile in Holland,
and chiefly among those of Robinson's congregation in Leyden.
Although they had prospered in Holland, or at least managed
to live there, they felt it "grievous to live from under the
protection of the State of England " ; they could not bear the
thought of "losing their language and their name of English ";
they disliked the lax ness of the Dutch in the matter of the
Sabbath, and feared for the morals of their children in con-
sequence ; and they concluded that, " if God would be pleased
to discover some place unto them, though in America," they
mi^lit by going thither "more glorify God, do more good to
" their country, better provide for their posterity,and live to be
" more refreshed by their labours, than ever they could do in
" Holland, where they were." Accordingly, after a year or two
«•! preparation, and negotiation with the English Govern in < nt,
there was founded thu famous first colony of New England,
known as The Settlement of New Plymouth (1620). The original
srttl<-rs «'!' this colony, the first Pilgrim F;tth«T> <>!' America,
VOL. II 2 N
546 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
were an express detachment of Independents from Holland,
with others from England, organized by Eobinson. They
were sent across the Atlantic, as we have seen (Vol. I. pp.
428-431), with his blessing, and with his parting instructions
for the preservation of their Independency. He would
have gone with them himself, but for fear that the English
Government would in that case have drawn back and pre-
vented the emigration at the last moment. It was his inten-
tion, however, to follow when he could, and cast in his lot
with the infant colony. That intention never took effect, for
Eobinson died in Holland while the colony was still struggling
in its beginnings. But the men who superintended those
beginnings were Eobinson's emissaries, and imbued with his
spirit ; and, when the news of his death reached the colony in
the fifth year of its existence, just as prosperity was beginning
to reward the hardships and toil of the four preceding years,
those who had so recently parted from him gathered together
in their rude dwellings to speak of him, and there was sorrow
that the one man of all the world to whom the rising society
owed its origin, and whom it had longed most to welcome
into the midst of it, had died without beholding the work
of his hands.1 His chief substitute in the colony, and long
its leading teacher, was William Brewster, a man somewhat
older than Eobinson, originally one of the English Separatists
in Nottinghamshire, and afterwards a venerated elder in
Eobinson's church in Leyden, where he carried on also the
business of a printer. He had studied at Cambridge Univer-
sity, and had been in employment about the English court
in his youth.
From the landing of Eobinson's first little company of 1 0 2
emigrants from Holland and England on the American coast
(Nov. 1 6 2 0) to the meeting of theXong Parliament (Nov. 1640)
was a period of exactly twenty years. During those twenty
years, and especially after Laud's ascendency in Church and
State had made the condition of the Puritans in England
1 Hanbury's Memorials of Indepen- England, Vol. I. (1859) pp. 145 — 172,
dents, I. 389—403 (where there is a list and pp. 224—5 ; Fletcher's Hist, of In-
of the forty - one first adult male dependency, III. 78, 79.
colonists) ; Palfrey's History of New
NEW ENGLAND AND ITS CHURCH. 547
more and more precarious, the emigration had gone on apace.
Laud, indeed, did all he could to frustrate it, and to keep the
Puritans at home to be dealt with, just as he tried, through
the Dutch Government, to reach and control the English
Separatists in Holland. Still, year after year, companies of
English Puritans contrived to ship themselves off for the
New World, intermingled with detachments of the residuary
exiles in Holland, who had learnt to think of America as a
more desirable refuge. In a satirical ballad of the year 1639
the advantages of New England are thus set forth by an
English Puritan supposed to be addressing his neighbours :—
My brethren all, attend ye,
And list to my relation ;
This is the day, mark what I say,
Tends to your renovation.
Stay not among the wicked,
Lest that here with them you perish ;
But let us to New England go,
And the Pagan people cherish.
Then for Truth's sake come along, come along ;
Leave this place of superstition :
Wer't not for we that Brethren be,
You would sink into perdition.
There you may teach our hymns too
Without the law's controlment ;
We need not fear the Bishops there,
Nor spiritual courts' enrolment.
The surplice shall not fright us,
Nay, nor superstition's blindness ;
Nor scandals rise when we disguise,
And our sisters kiss in kindness.
Then for Truth's sake come along, <fec.
For company I fear not :
There goes my cousin Hannah ;
And Reuben so persuades to go
My cousin Joyce, Susanna,
With Abigail and Faithful ;
And Ruth no doubt will come after ,
And Sarah kind won't stay behind,
My own cousin Constance' daughter.
Then for Truth's sake come along, (fee.1
1 Quoted in Hanlmry's Memorial* Songs relating to the Into time*: By
(II. lljfroni "The Kump ; or, an Exact the most emim-ut NVit«, from anno 1689
Collection of the < hoieoflt Poems and to anno 1661" ; puMinhod 1662.
548 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
This is a ribald representation of what was a most serious
and momentous fact. In the twenty years under notice, it is
calculated, about 300 ships, carrying 4,000 families, at a cost
of 200,000/., had gone over from English and Dutch ports, so
that in 1640 the total immigrant population of New England
consisted of 21,000 or 22,000 persons. By that time this
sturdy little population had spread itself, in rough towns
and villages, mostly with names taken from the dear English
towns at home, along its selected portion of the American
coast, seized or partly bought from the native Indians. It
had also, in some consistency with the charters under which
it had come out, but partly also on the spur of will and
convenience, organized itself territorially into four distinct
bodies-politic called Colonies, with one or two outlying settle-
ments, not recognised yet as Colonies, but called only Planta-
tions. It may be well to present to the eye a kind of word-
map of the infant New England that had thus formed itself,
with a digest of historical particulars to the year 1640 :—
THE FOUR COLONIES.
I. NEW PLYMOUTH, founded 1620. — This colony, schemed by
Robinson of Leyden, and founded by his emissaries and their
associates from England, remained of small dimensions. Probably
not more than 3,000 souls out of the total of 22,000 in New
England belonged to it, aggregated chiefly in the original town of
PLYMOUTH, but with other incipient townships in the neighbour-
hood, such as Duxbury and Marshfield. The constitution of the
colony was democratic : i.e. the ultimate power was in the whole
body of the admitted freemen of the colony, meeting periodically
and determining matters by a majority of votes ; the right to
admit new-comers to the franchise, however, resting with those
already in possession of it. The executive was in the hands of a
Governor, with Assistants, elected annually by the freemen. The
following is the list of the Governors of the colony from its com-
mencement till 1640 : — John Carver, one of Robinson's deacons
at Leyden (1620—21); William Bradford, also one of Robinson's
flock, and originally from Scrooby in Nottinghamshire (1621 — 32) ;
Edward Winslow (1633); Thomas Prince (1634); William Brad-
ford again (1635) ; Edward Winslow again (1636) ; William Brad-
ford again (1637) ; Thomas Prince again (1638) ; William Bradford
again (1639 — 43). The governorship, it will be noted, often came
back to the same hands, and Bradford's tenures of it were long, as
well as frequent.
XI :\V ENGLAND AND ITS CHURCH. 549
1 1 MASSACHUSETTS, or MASSACHUSETTS BAY, founded 1629. — The
original founders of this colony, immediately north of that of New
Plymouth (both colonies lying within what is now the State of
Massachusetts), were a mixed body of emigrants from England, but
chiefly Puritans of the moderate or Presbyterian type, as distinct
from the Separatists. Mr. John White, minister of Dorche>t«-r,
known among the Puritans as " Patriarch White," had taken much
interest in the foundation. The colony, reinforced by fresh arrivals,
had by the year 1640 much outstripi>ed that of New Plymouth in
size, and may have included as many as 14,000 souls out of the total
<>t ill', 000 constituting New England. The original settlement of
the colony had been Salem ; but, as the colonists increased and
ranged out in quest of sites, some score of other townships had been
formed, including Boston, Cambridge, Lynn, Concord, Ipswich,
Watertoum, Charlestoum, llingham, Dorchester, and Roxbury. Of
all the towns of the colony BOSTON had become distinctly the
capital, or seat of government. That government was on very
much the same popular or democratic model as had been adopted
in New Plymouth ; with this important difference, that in Massa-
chusetts Churofc-membership was a condition of the franchise. The
executive was in the hands of Governors, Deputy-Governor*, and
Assistants, elected annually ; and the following is the series of the
earliest Governors : — John Winthrop the elder, a Suffolk man
of old family, educated at Cambridge, and trained for the law
(1629—33); Thomas Dudley (1634) ; John Haynes( 1635) ; Henry
Vane the younger (1636); John Winthrop again (1637 — 39);
Thomas Dudley again (1640). Winthrop was the great man in
the formation of Massachusetts, though Vane's brief visit to the
colony and his year of governorship are worthy of recollection.
III. CONNECTICUT RIVER. — This colony, considerably to the
south and west of Massachusetts and New Plymouth, was the result
of a movement out of those colonies, in search of richer lands,
which had begun about 1635. There had been much h'ghting with
the Indians in establishing the new colony ; and it had attained no
great dimensions in 1640, numbering then perhaps less than
2,000 souls. Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut, and
• rsfield, lliii-tfnril, and Windsor, higher up the river, were
among the first towns. The government was substantially as in
Plymouth and Massachusetts, but without the Massachusetts rule
requiring Church-membership as a qualification for the franchise.
The executive consisted of Governors, Dejwty-Governors, and .!/«////>-
, elected annually. The first Governor, elected in 1639, was
John Haynes, who had been Governor of Massachusetts in 1635;
the second, elected in 1640, was Edward Hopkins
IV. Ni\\ II \\t.\. Tlii- num. was first given to a single town ni
settlement founded, in 1638, at what had till then Keen called
(^uinnipiack, on a fine harbour in Long-Island Sound, thirty mil< s
west of Conin iver, and verging on what wnv then the
Dutch possessions in America. The found a small society
550 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
of persons, mostly traders from London, and of some means, who
had not found things quite to their mind in Massachusetts, and
wanted to try a polity on the strictest Scripture principles. Others
and others of similar views following pretty fast to the same part of
the coast (now included in the State of Connecticut), Milford, Guil-
ford, Greenwich, and Southhold in Long Island, were founded, in
addition to New Haven. These townships, numbering perhaps less
than 2,000 souls in all in 1640, were for the present distinct, each
as a little autonomy of freemen duly qualified by Church- member-
ship; and it was not till 1643 that they came definitely together
under the general name of NEW HAVEN, with Theophilus Eaton
for the first Governor. Practically, however, the colony existed
in 1640.
OUTLYING PLANTATIONS.
Not strictly within the bounds of any of the four colonies, but
distinctly within the bounds of New England, there w^re at least
two patches or stragglings of English population : — (1) Providence
and Rhode Island. These were clusters of familits, of peculiarly
Separatist opinions, who, finding themselves uncomfortable, and in
fact under a ban, in Massachusetts and New Plymouth, had
migrated into the country of the Narraganset Indians, then lying
like a wedge between New Plymouth and Connecticut, and now
forming the State of Rhode Island. Providence was the name of a
tiny settlement so formed on the mainland at the head of Narra-
ganset Bay in 1636 ; and the similar settlements of Portsmouth and
Newport on the adjacent island of Rhodes, then called Aquetnet,
date from 1638 and 1639. These settlements were of a strictly
democratic type, but without the connexion of the franchise with
Church -membership. (2) To the vague north and north-east of
Massachusetts, in the country now forming the States of New
Hampshire and Maine, were similar stragglers. Dover, dating from
as early as 1631, received subsequent increase ; and fixeter was
founded by a few families from Boston in 1639. Massachusetts
claimed the lands where those plantations stood, but they were
virtually independent.1
Such was infant NEW ENGLAND, separated by the Dutch
settlements of New Netherlands from the older and more
southern division of England's American possessions known
as VIRGINIA. Now, not the least distinction of this NEW
1 My chief authority for the facts I map; and there is a map, suiting a
have condensed in this account of New rather later date, in Cotton Mather's
England as far as 1640 is Mr. Palfrey's " Magnalia Christi Americana : or, Ec-
History of New England : Vol. I. clesiastical History of New England
throughout, with tables at the end ; and from 1620 to 1698 " (folio, 1702).
Vol. II. pp. 1 — 34. Palfrey gives a
NEW ENGLAND CONGREGATIONALISM. 551
ENGLAND from VIRGINIA, from the mother-country which
had given birth to both, and from all other lands then
known in the world, lay in the peculiar Church-organization
which it had universally adopted. That organization was
not Prelatic, was not Presbyterian, but was according to the
system of Independency or Congregationalism, as it had been
imaged forth by the early Separatists of England, and after-
wards matured by the English Separatists in Holland, and
especially by Robinson of Leyden. As this fact was to be of
great consequence, not only in the history of English America,
but also in the history of England herself, it deserves farther
elucidation.
New Plymouth, the first of the English colonies, had been
a foundation expressly in the interests of Independency, and
mainly of the Robinsonian Independency. The venerable
William Brewster, Robinson's substitute as the spiritual
leader of the colony, lived on in Plymouth to 1643, as
" Ruling Elder " of the church there, performing for some time
by himself all the duties of the ministry, except the adminis-
tration of the sacraments (which, Robinson wrote to him,
would not be lawful or expedient for one who was but a
" Ruling Elder," and not regularly ordained for the ministry),
but latterly having associated with him, in the nominally
higher office of " pastor," a succession of persons who had
been bred for that office in one or other of the English
Universities. In that colony, therefore, Congregationalist
arrangements prevailed from the first. In the second, or
Massachusetts, colony, which did not consist so avowedly of
Independents at the outset, but rather of mixed emigrants
from England, among whom were not a few Puritans of
Presbyterian prepossessions, the same prevalence of Inde-
pendency might not have been looked for; and, in fact,
Messrs. Skelton and Higginson, two silenced Church of
Kirjlanil ministers, both of Cambridge education, who came
out as first pastors of the colony, were understood to be
•yterians when they arrivrd. Whether, however, n»ni
tin- . tl. < t of the example and contact of New Plymouth, or
tin- ii it -ii; effect of tin- iii-w i-mnlitions of self-government
552
LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
in knots and townships in which the colonists found them-
selves, and which Congregationalism in Church matters seemed
to suit, the Church-discipline in this colony too became at
once, and without outcry or opposition, substantially Con-
gregationalist. And so, by extension, in Connecticut, New
Haven, and the outlying Plantations ; which were all in the
main offshoots from Massachusetts and New Plymouth.
Hence over all New England the phenomenon of Church
Independency, with only such variations in detail as Church
Independency might occasion : — The population consisted,
ecclesiastically, of an aggregate of Christian societies or con-
gregations, larger or smaller, each perfectly distinct within
itself, each bound by its own covenant of doctrinal and moral
agreement among all admitted into it, each meeting on Sun-
days and other days for worship and the sacraments, each
electing its own officers, and each managing its own affairs,
including the censure or excommunication of erring members,
through those officers, or, on occasion, by the votes of the
whole body of the male communicants. The place of wor-
ship for the congregation of each town was the meeting-
house of that town ; which was also used for assemblies of the
citizens for all kinds of public business. In fully-furnished
congregations the officers consisted of the Pastor, or general
minister, the Teacher, or Scripture expositor, Ruling Elders,
associated with those two in the exercise of discipline, and
Deacons, intrusted with money-matters and the relief of the
poor.1 It was always understood that the existence of these
1 The clearest definition I have found of the bodies of the members : — "1. In
of the nature and reason of these offices,
as conceived by the early Independ-
ents, is in the Appendix to Eobinson's
Apology, or Explanation of the Prin-
ciples of Independency, first printed in
1625. There, after defining a Church
to be "a company of faithful and holy
''people, with their seed, called by the
'Word of God into public covenant
' with Christ and amongst themselves
' for mutual fellowship in the use of all
'the means of God's glory and their
'salvation," he proceeds to show that
five offices are necessary and sufficient
in every such Church, arising from the
conditions partly of the souls and partly
"the soul is the faculty of under-
Standing; about which the Teacher
"is to be exercised for a confirmation
"of doctrine.— 2. The Will and Affec-
" tions, upon which the Pastor is
' ' especially to work by exhortation
"and comfort. — 3. For that doctrine
"and exhortation without obedience
"are unprofitable, the diligence of the
"Ruling Elder is requisite for that
"purpose. — 4. And, as the Church con-
' ' sisteth of men, and they of souls and
' ' bodies, so are the Deacons out of the
" Church's treasure and contributions
" to provide for the common uses of the
"Church, relief of the poor, and main-
NEW ENGLAND CONGREGATIONALISM. 553
officers did not take away from other members of the congre-
gation the right of occasionally " prophesying," or publicly
exhorting in its meetings. In the names and distribution
<>f the officers, too, there was not strict uniformity, and the
tendency on the whole was to simplification into the three
orders of Minister or Teaching Elder, Ruling Elders, and
Deacons. The essential peculiarity was that the officers
were officers only in the congregations that- had elected
them, and so long as they were retained by these. Nor had
contiguous congregations any authority over each other. A
member of one congregation, whether minister or not, might
" prophesy " in another, if invited ; and naturally this privi-
lege was exercised by ministers when away from their own
churches. There might, also, be meetings of the officers or
members of contiguous congregations, or the congregations
of a whole district, for mutual consultation and advice ; and
a congregation, seeing a neighbour congregation going wrong,
might remonstrate to that effect, and even publicly disown
fellowship with the offending church. There was a haziness
or variety of opinion as to the proper extent in the system of
Independency of this practice of conferences or councils among
neighbour churches, some assigning a value to it which others
thought a dangerous concession towards Presbyterianism.
In one point this haziness between extreme Separatism and
semi-Separatism might occasion practical difficulty. When
;i minister was elected by a particular congregation, was his
ordination to be by that congregation within itself, or
was he to be ordained by some ministers of neighbouring
churches ? On the one hand, the rule of the ordination of
the minister of one church by neighbouring ministers ini^ht
savour somewhat of the notion, repudiated by Independency,
that the ministry was a sacred caste among men, transmitting
its own virtue by its own inherent powers. On the other,
there were reasons of decorum and amity for the co-operation of
"tonance of officer*.— 5. As are the bury, 1. 889: Note.) This Fifth Church
afford unto the sick and office, that of Widow to act an nurses,
•• itiijM.u-nt in I....1 therwiso seems soon to have vanished from the
"to help themselves, their cheerful and formal or theoretical scheme,
•rtaJ-li- -c-r\ . ;. i,,,t fr..in < 'hun-h j-ra
554 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
ministers conveniently near in the welcome and consecration
of the minister whom any congregation had just elected. In
practice the former consideration, retaining the act of ordina-
tion within each church, seems to have prevailed in New
England, for a time at least. Thus, at the formation of the
first Massachusetts church, that of Salem (July 1629), when
Mr. Skelton had been duly elected " pastor " and Mr. Higgin-
son " teacher," they were, though already ordained ministers
of the Church of England, re-ordained specially for their
new offices ; some three or four of the gravest members of
the church first laying their hands on Skelton's head and
praying, and then Skelton doing the same for Higginson.
But, on the other hand, why was not the venerable Brewster
of New Plymouth promoted by his own congregation from
the " ruling eldership, " which made him practically their
sole minister for some time, to the full " pastorate " which
would have perfected his services ? Information is deficient ;
and probably New England Independency was gradually
clearing its own mind on such minutiae of its system. One
can imagine, however, that, as ministers multiplied in the
colonies, the tendency to co-operation among them would
naturally show itself, and that consequently Independency
would develop more and more the tenet, always reserved for
it by Eobinson, that there might be a useful and even wide
co-ordination of the churches on the principle of mutual
advice, consultation, and criticism, though not of compulsion
or synodical jurisdiction.1
As many as about eighty ministers, almost all of whom
had been divines in the Church of England, whether as
parish-ministers or lecturers, are known to have been in New
England in 1640, distributed, as "pastors" or " teachers,"
among the churches of the several colonies.2 This gives
about one minister to every 280 souls of the population ; so
that, even if we suppose each congregation to have had both
a " pastor " and a " teacher," many of the congregations must
1 Palfrey's History of New England, seventy-seven of the original ministers
II. 36—44, and I. 231 and 295. of New England, with the towns where
2 Cotton Mather, in his Magnolia they severally settled and laboured.
(Book III. Part 1), gives the names of
KMINENT NEW ENGLAND MINISTERS. 555
have been very small. The following, arranged alphabetically,
are a few of the ministers chiefly deserving notice, in addition
to those already mentioned :—
PETER BULKLEY, B.D. of Cambridge, and formerly Fellow of St.
John's in that University ; then minister of a parish in his native
Bedfordshire. After twenty years of incumbency in this parish,
where Bishop Williams connived at his nonconformity, Laud's vigi-
lance obliged him to emigrate in 1635, a-tat. 53. He became
minister of Concord in Massachusetts, and lived till 1658-9. A
book of his, called The Gospel Covenant, was one of the first
specimens of New England authorship.1
CHARLES CHAUNCEY, B.D. of Cambridge, and some time lecturer
in that University in Greek and Hebrew ; afterwards minister of
Ware in his native county of Herts. Having suffered much for
nonconformity at home, he emigrated in 1638, when he was about
forty-eight years of age ; became minister to the New Plymouth
Church, in association with Brewster ; but, after a year or two, went
to Massachusetts. He lived to 1671, attaining higher distinction
in that colony.2
JOHN COTTON, B.D. of Cambridge, formerly Fellow of Emanuel
College there ; afterwards, as minister of Boston, Lincolnshire, a great
man among the English Nonconformists, and much persecuted by
Laud. In 1633 he escaped with difficulty to New England, aged
forty-eight ; writing (or surely it was some parishioner who wrote
it for him !) a copy of verses on the occasion, of which this is a
specimen :—
" When I think of the sweet and gracious company
That at Boston once I had,
And of the long peace of a fruitful ministry
For twenty years enjoyed,
The joy that I found in all that happiness
Doth still so much refresh me
That the grief to be cast out into a wilderness
Doth not so much distress me."
He found, however, a new Boston in the wilderness,— the since
famous BOSTON of the United States. Becoming minister there,
li. lived on till 1652, so active, and (his poetry discounted) so
al.lt-, n man in the affairs of the colony that he figures in old
;is the "father and glory of Boston." He did murh.
indeed, to >l»;ipe and modify the Independency of New En
generally by gi\in^ prominence to the Robinsonian proviso that
» Neal'« Puritan*, II. W4 : htlfroy. thor'a Ma^nlia. Book III. Part 2.
I. 484 : Cott-.n \\\\. . Palfrey, I. M5-«, and
li.n.k 111. I II. m. Not*.
» NeaT « Puritans, ti. 315, 316 ; Ma-
556 . LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
there might be associations of churches for consultation and the
like. Some thought he pushed this proviso to a kind of practical
semi-Presbyterianism, and that he was led in that direction by his
personal talent for negotiation, which needed a pretty wide circle.
Cotton was a Derbyshire man by birth, stoutish, and of ruddy-fair
complexion. His writings were rather numerous.1
JOHN DAVENPOET, B.D. of Oxford; formerly minister of St.
Stephen's, Coleman Street, London; then, between 1633 and 1637,
a refugee in Amsterdam, and preacher there. While in Amsterdam,
he became conspicuous as an advocate of Independency, and had a
controversy on the subject, both socially and in print, with John
Paget, M.A., who had been minister of the English Presbyterian
church of that city from 1607, and had been a zealous champion of
Presbytery, and defender of the Presbyterianism of his flock, against
the previous Anglo-Dutch Separatists, including Johnson, Ainsworth,
Jacob, and Robinson. Thus, when Davenport emigrated to New
England in 1637, cetat. 40, he had been preceded by a considerable
reputation. He became minister in New Haven, and lived till 1670.2
JOHN ELIOT, B.A. of Cambridge ; afterwards assistant in a school
at Chelmsford in Essex. He went out to Massachusetts in 1631,
in his twenty-eighth year ; preached for some time in Boston ; but
in 1632 became minister of Roxbury in the same neighbourhood.
It was while he was in this charge that he began his study of the
languages of the native Indians, and so qualified himself for that
Apostleskip among the Indians to which he dedicated himself in
1646, and by his labours in which all the rest of his life, including
his translation of the Bible into Indian, he is best remembered.
The conversion of the Indians was one of the avowed objects of the
first emigrants to New England, and Eliot had associates in the
work ; but no one came up to him. " There was no man on earth
whom I honoured above him," wrote Baxter. He died in 1690, at
the age of eighty-six, having resigned his pastoral charge at Roxbury
only two years before.3
THOMAS HOOKER : a Leicestershire man, once Fellow of Emanuel
College, Cambridge ; then Nonconformist preacher at Chelmsford,
Essex (where Eliot was his assistant) ; next an exile in Holland ;
then again in England under hiding. He came to New England in
1633, cetat. 47, in the same ship with Cotton ; was chosen pastor of
Newtown (afterwards called Cambridge) in Massachusetts ; but
removed in 1636 to Connecticut, where he became minister of Hart-
ford. After having exerted an influence in the Church of New
i Neal's Puritans, II. 253 ; Palfrey, 2 Neal, II. 253—4 ; Palfrey, I. 528—
I. 367—9, and II. 409—11 ; a memoir 543 ; Hanbury, I. 324 et seq. and 526
entitled Gottoniis Redivivus in Mather's et sea.
Magnolia, Book III. Part 1, Chap. I. ; 3 leather's Magnolia, Book III.
also a Life of Cotton in Clarke's Mar- Part 3 ; Palfrey, I. 357, and II. 189
tyrologie (1677), where other specimens et seq. But there are express Lives of
of his poetry, or "Divine Soliloquies," Eliot, and Articles on him in our Bio-
as Clarke calls them, will be found. graphical Dictionaries.
KMINKNT N1.W ENGLAND MINISTERS. 557
England hardly inferior to Cotton's, he died in 1647, much re-
gretted. Cotton, who had had differences with him, wrote an elegy
in which he described him as equal to Farul, Viret, and Calvin, the
three Genevan worthies, all in one,
%> A son of thunder, and a shower of rain,
A pourer forth of lively oracles,
In saving souls the sum of miracles." l
HANSERD KNOLLYS : born in Lincolnshire 1598; educated at
Cambridge ; master for a time of the Free School of Gainsborough
in his native county ; then in 1629 parish-minister of Humberstone,
Leicestershire, by presentation of Bishop Williams. He resigned his
living from scruples after a year or two ; preached about the country ;
became a decided Separatist in 1636 ; and was driven to New England
for refuge in 1638. He went first to Boston, but, being complained
of there as an Antinomian, accepted a call to be a preacher to the
plantation on the northern fringe of Massachusetts. Still his
extreme Separatism and his heterodoxy on Baptism and other
points roused clamours against him, and indeed exposed him to
danger. He returned to England in 1641, to lead a career of the
most unflinching resolution and the most varied fortunes, which
did not end till 1690, when he was ninety-two years of age. He
is one of the heroes of the English Baptist denomination ; insomuch
that special memoirs of him, with portraits, appear in their Histories,
and there was recently a II«n*erd Knotty* Society for the republica-
tion of scarce old I'.apti-t tracts. We shall meet him again in
England.
RICHARD M \TIII:U: a Lancashire man, born 1596 ; educated at
Brasenose, Oxford ; had been preacher at Toxteth, near Liverpool,
and twice suspended for nonconformity. He arrived in New Eng-
land with his family in Hi.T», and became minister at Dorchester,
Massachusetts. He lived there till 1669, and at his death left four
sons in the ministry; one of whom, Increase Mather, tnarri«l a
dauphin- of Mr. < 'utton of Boston, and became the father of Cotton
.Math-r.
JOHN NORTON, B.A. of Cambridge; once curate of a parish in
Herts. He went to New England in 1635, <etat. 29 ; was for a few
months Brewster's associate in tin- church of Plymouth ; removed
t<> li-uirh in Massachusetts; was accounted, after Cotton,
ili-- mo.st riuiiM-nt <li\in. in that colony ; succeeded Cotton in 1656
as Teacher in tin « -him -h of p,o,fn ; and died 1663. The New
Englanders anagram ma ti/*. I his name Johannt* Nortonu* into
i Neatti Purifc.: I \ilfr. -v. Umlon, II. 562—571 ; Palfrey, I. 519,
I. 444—455, and II. 264, with Note ; 520, and 589-591.
Mather't Maynalia, ft rt 1, » Wood'* Athene, III. 882-836;
Cotton Mather'* MtiffnaKa, Book III.
* WUaon's Dissenting Churchea of Part 2, Chap. \.\.
558 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Nonne is honoratus ? and proposed for his epitaph his mere name,
with this legend underneath it : —
" Quis fuerit ultra si quaBras,
Dignus es qui nescias." l
RALPH PARTRIDGE, probably a Cambridge man and silenced
minister at home, was minister at Duxbury in the New Plymouth
colony, and lived there till 1658. "He must be regarded as the
clergyman who exerted the most influence over the early ecclesias-
tical transactions of that colony." 2
HUGH PETERS. — This celebrated unfortunate was born in 1599
at Fowey in Cornwall, where his father was a merchant. He was
educated at Trinity College, Cambridge ; and, after taking his M.A.
degree, spent some time in Essex, where he became acquainted
with Thomas Hooker, preached in various places, and married a
wife who afterwards became insane and caused him much anxiety
and trouble. Settling for a time in London, and becoming known
to Dr. Gouge, Mr. John Davenport, Mr. White of Dorchester, and
others, he held a lectureship at St. Sepulchre's, to which " the resort
grew so great that it contracted envy and anger." He estimates his
hearers at " six or seven thousand " ; which might appear incredible,
but for later instances. Getting into difficulties with Laud, he
migrated to Rotterdam, where he formed an English Independent
congregation, and remained pastor thereof for five or six years.
Annoyances by Laud, through the English Ambassador, drove him
from Holland; and in 1635 he appeared in Massachusetts, landing
at the same time as the younger Vane, if not from the same ship.
He became pastor of the church at Salem, and, in conjunction with
Vane, began immediately to take an active part in the politics of
Massachusetts. He and Vane were associated with Governor Win-
throp in directing the first planting of Connecticut ; and, after Vane
left Massachusetts, Peters is still heard of as a leading spirit in the
commerce and State business, even more than in the Church, of the
colony. He "went from place to place," says Winthrop, "labour-
ing both publicly and privately to raise up men to a public frame of
spirit, and so prevailed as he procured a good sum of money to be
raised to set on foot the fishing business." He thought to end his
life in New England in such occupations ; but there was another
fate in store for him.3
THOMAS SHEPARD, M.A. of Cambridge; once lecturer at Earl's
Colme, Essex. After having been chased hither and thither in
England for nonconformity, he emigrated to America in 1635, at
the age of thirty ; became minister at Cambridge, Massachusetts ;
and died there in 1649.4
1 Neal's Puritans, II. 527 ; Palfrey, 1660, quoted in Hanbury's Memorials,
II. 463 and 528 ; Mather's Magnalia, III. 570—587 ; Palfrey, I. 436 et sea.
Book III. Part 1, Chap. II. * Deal's Puritans, II. 257 ; Palfrey,
2 Palfrey, II. 408-9. I. 453 ; Mather's Magnalia, Book III.
3 Letters by Peters himself, written in Part 2, Chap. V.
EMINENT NEW ENGLAND MINISTERS. 559
s \ \n 1 1. STONE ; educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge : had
a lecturer in Northamptonshire; went to .\\-\\ England in
1633 with Cotton and Hooker; became "teacher" of the church
of Newtown (Cambridge), Massachusetts, of which Hooker was
" pastor " ; removed thence, with Hooker, to Hartford, in Connec-
ticut; and lived, an influential man, till 1663. Cotton Mather, in
his account of Hooker, tells a story of Stone's cleverness. While
he and Hooker were skulking in London before their escape to
New England, a warrant, at Laud's instance, was out for Hooker's
arrest. The pursuivant came to the door of Stone's chamber, where
he and Hooker were sitting together after a walk. " Mr. Stone was
at that instant smoking of tobacco ; for which Mr. Hooker had been
reproving him, as being then used by few persons of sobriety."
When the officer knocked, Stone, with the pipe in his mouth, went
to the door. " Is Mr. Hooker here ? " asked the officer. " What
Hooker ? " said Stone : " Do you mean the Hooker that once lived at
Chelmsford?" "Yes," said the officer. "If it be he," replied
Stone, " it is about an hour since I saw him at such and such a
house in the City : you had better make haste." The man believed
in the pipe and went away.1
NATHANIEL WARD, M.A. of Cambridge ; formerly Rector of
Standon Massye, Essex. Driven from England for nonconformity,
he had arrived in Massachusetts in 1634 at the age of thirty-one,
and became pastor of the church of Ipswich. He remained in this
charge, however, only two years ; and during the rest of his stay in
the colony he assisted chiefly in its political business. Before taking
orders in England he had been a Common Law barrister; and
hence, when the Iff MM <il ill* till colonists resolved to have a written
Code of Laws of their own, instead of the mere recollection of the
Laws of England they had brought with them, he was employed to
prepare it. It was enacted in 1641 under the title of The Body of
rtiest and consisted of one hundred fundamental laws.2
TIIM.M \- \\ KJ.DE, probably a Cambridge man. He had gone out
issachusetts in 1632, and had been appointed co-minister with
Eliot to the church in Roxbury. He was of some influence in tin-
colony, but was to return to England after nine years of American
experience, and was to report that experience, in various ways,
for the instruction of English society. He lived till after the
Restoration.8
.Jnn\ Win ii u ii.. ii i ; educated at Cambridge University, \vli. i«
-aid to have formed an acquaintance with Cromwell. He had
been a minister in England ; but had emigrated in 1636, and become
.1 in- uiber of the church at Boston. Immediately he joined a
certain " Antinomian movement " (hereafter to be spoken of) then
agitating the colony. Of this movement he became a leader, preach-
ing and contending in its behalf. At length, after much excitement
» Palfrey, I. 445, and II. 490 ; and * Palfrey, II. 22-26.
Hdfatr, • i 'Palfrey, 1. 367 and 682-4.
560 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
and division among the colonists, he was censured, and with other
ringleaders banished beyond the bounds of the colony. He then
(1638) transferred himself, with a body of companions, to the
outlying parts north of Massachusetts (now New Hampshire and
Maine), where they founded Exeter, and afterwards a town called
Wells. But in 1644 he made his peace with the Massachusetts
people; and, returning to England, he lived on till 1679, to be
farther heard of on both sides of the Atlantic.1
ROGER WILLIAMS. — No man in our present list deserves more
attention than this, or will reappear more interestingly in the sub-
sequent course of our History. The known facts of his life, as far
as 1640, are as follows : — He was a Welshman, born in Carmarthen-
shire in or about 1606, and possibly (though this is but vague
tradition) related by some link of kin to Cromwell ; for whose
family name of " Cromwell " the name " Williams " was a recognised
alias, used by Cromwell himself as such in some of his juvenile
signatures. He was educated at Charterhouse School, London, and
then at Jesus College, Oxford, which he entered in 1624. He was
then a protege of the great lawyer and judge, Sir Edward Coke ;
of whose speeches in the Star Chamber he sometimes took notes
in shorthand, and whose kindness to him he spoke of warmly to the
end of his life. He appears to have taken orders in the Church of
England ; but he soon became so decidedly a Separatist that he
saw no safety except in emigration. " That man of honour and
" wisdom and piety, your dear father," he wrote long afterwards to
a daughter of Sir Edward Coke, " was often pleased to call me his
son; and truly it was as bitter as death to me, when Bishop
Laud pursued me out of the land, and my conscience was per-
suaded against the National Church, and ceremonies and bishops,
beyond the conscience of your dear father, — I say it was as bitter
as death to me, when I rode Windsor-way to take ship at Bris-
" to we, and saw Stoke House, where that blessed man was, and
" durst not acquaint him with my conscience and my flight." He
arrived in Massachusetts in 1631, aged about twenty-five; and, his
reputation having gone before him, he was unanimously chosen
Teacher at Boston (two years before Cotton came to take that post).
Somehow that arrangement did not take effect; and, Higginson
dying at Salem, he was called to the " Teachership " of the church
there, so made vacant. But from the first moment of his arrival
in New England the country began to ring with his singularities of
opinion. How strange were those singularities, and how vehement
a man in the infant New England was Roger Williams altogether,
may be gathered from the passage in which Cotton Mather first
describes him in his Ecclesiastical History of New England, written
some seventy years afterwards. "In the year 1654," says Cotton
Mather, " a certain Windmill in the Low Countries, whirling round
"with extraordinary violence, by reason of a violent storm then
i Palfrey, I. 472 et seq.
ROGER WILLIAMS. 561
4 blowing, the stone at length by its rapid motion became so
* intensely hot as to fire the Mill, from whence the flames, being
* dispersed by the high winds, did set a whole Town on fire. Hut
4 I can tell my reader that, above twenty years before this, there
' was a whole Country in America like to be set on fire by the
4 rapid motion of a Windmill in the head of one particular man."
So Cotton Mather, expressing the opinion of orthodox New Eng-
land respecting Roger Williams at a time when angry recollection
of his heterodoxies, and of the perturbation he had caused in the
early state of the colonies, was mingled with a sort of vague liking
for him after all, and a sense that his life as a whole had not been
without features that would make him a picturesque figure for ever
in early American history. Meanwhile, not from Cotton Mather's
point of view, we have to study the man for ourselves. What
were the heterodoxies that first came from the windmill in his
head ? That the civil magistrate had no right to impose oaths, to
punish Sabbath-breakers, or to compel to church-membership ; that
the lands of the colonists could not be theirs by any title from
home, unless they were fairly purchased from the Indians; that
meetings of neighbouring ministers on never so small a scale for
so-called purposes of conference and discussion perilled individual
liberty and the true principle of the Independency of Churches,
and tended to Presbyterian consociation and tyranny : these, in
many varieties of ways, were the novelties that broke upon the
astonished people of Massachusetts from the preachings and pro-
phesy ings of the young Welshman. Personally he was most likeable,
— sincere to the core, and of a rich, glowing, peculiarly affectionate
nature, which yearned even towards those from whom he differed
publicly, and won their esteem in return. But what were they to
do? Mere religious whimsies they might have borne with so far
in Williams, including even his Individualism, or excess of Sepa-
ratism ; but here were attacks on law, property, social order ! For a
time it was hoped that reasonings, moderate censures, and moral
pressure would bring him round. But, though he shift CM! from
place to place, — leaving Salem for a time for New Plymouth, where
he tried to get on with the mild Brcwster, and then returning to
Salem, where the people were so attached to him that they would
have him to be their "pastor" on the death of Skelton (1634),—
yet; as he became more determined in his singularities, and main-
tained them by writings, harder measures were used. Governor
I Li \ nes and the magistrates interfered ; and at a General Court of
the whole Colony of Massachusetts, held at Boston in S< |.t. ml.n
tins order was passed: "Whereas Mr. Roger William
44 of the Elders of the Church of Salem, hath broached and divulged
•• divers new and dangerous opinions against the authority of magis-
•<>s, and also writ letters of defamation both of the magi.-*
44 and churches here, and that More any conviction, and yet main
"taineth the saim- \\ithoiit ivtra.-ti,.n. it li therefore or
"tin- Mid Mr. \\illi.ini, -hall ;t of thi.s jiiri>di« t ion within
VOL. II
562 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" six weeks now next ensuing." The term of six weeks' grace was
afterwards extended for his accommodation ; but, as he was pug-
nacious still, and his mere removal from Salem or even beyond the
bounds of Massachusetts did not promise the quietness desired, it
was proposed to kidnap him in a friendly way and ship him back
to England. This was a process to which the colonists had resorted
as the simplest and really the kindliest in one or two previous cases
of refractory obstinates. Having received a hint, however, Williams,
with his wife and family, left Salem secretly in January 1635-6,
and took to the woods. For fourteen weeks, among the Pokanoket
Indians, south-west of New Plymouth, in frost and snow, he wan-
dered about, on foot or by boat, " not knowing what bread or bed
did mean," but kindly treated by the Indians, whose language he
had learnt, and among whom he had some influence by previous
experience. His notion was to find out some suitable spot for a
settlement of his own, beyond the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.
At last, a suggestion from Governor Winthrop, whose real regard
for him was combined with political prudence, determined him still
farther west, into the country of the Narraganset Indians. Here,
at the head inlet of Narraganset Bay, by the mouth of the Seekonk
River, he and his family, with five families who adhered to them,
founded, in June 1636, the town of Providence, thus beginning
that plantation of the Rhode Island district of which we have
taken account in our summary of the state of infant New England.
The lands were scrupulously bought from the Indians ; and the
agreement among the settlers themselves was such that their little
obscure community was then probably the most absolutely demo-
cratic in theory on the whole face of the earth. Williams, the
founder of the settlement, was also its pastor and teacher. Not
even so, however, cut off from the world though he was, with the
few most kindred souls of his own gathering to keep him company,
could he be at ease with himself or with them. In 1639 the
Massachusetts people heard that he had become a Baptist, having
first caused himself to be rebaptized by a poor man named
Holyman, all the way from Salem, and having then rebaptized
his baptizer and some ten more; thus establishing what was
practically the first Baptist Church in America. The Massachu-
setts people, though Williams was beyond their bounds, could not
hear of such perversity with indifference. Mr. Cotton of Boston
and other ministers made comments on it ; and, as Williams was
still nominally a member of the Church of Salem, of which he had
been pastor, that church, with their new pastor, Hugh Peters, at
their head, showed their sense of the apostasy by excommunicating
Williams, his wife, and some others of the rebaptized, and intimat-
ing the fact officially by letters to the various Massachusetts
churches. But Williams, even as excommunicated by Peters, was
not at the end of things. He had his doubts yet. How could
this baptism or re-baptism be right 1 It was not direct from God ;
it had not been administered by an Apostle ! Was there any real
ROGER WILL I 563
Church on earth ; were there any visible ordinances whatever really
from God 1 It not, \\hat remained for one ? What hut solitary praying
ami meditating, — no definite certainty, but only a continued tedeing
' ;«><!, if perchance He might be found? And so, at the head
irraganset Bay, in what was then the poor Providence Planta-
tion, but is now the main city of Rhode Island State, we leave
lloger Williams for the present. Let the reader fancy him in
1640, a man of thirty-four, of bold and stout jaw, but with the
richest and softest eyes, gazing out upon the Bay of his dwelling,
a spiritual Crusoe, the excommunicated even of Hugh Peters, and
the most extreme and outcast soul in all America.1
Of those seventeen persons, it may be noted, fourteen had
been bred at the University of Cambridge, and only three
(Davenport, Mather, and Williams) at the University of
Oxford. This was probably the proportion among the entire
body of the seventy or eighty New England divines of 1640
whom the selected seventeen represent ; for Cambridge was
and had long been the Alma Mater of Puritans. But the New
Englanders desired an Alma Mater of their own, to render
t lie in independent of imports from beyond the seas, and yet
secure that their native candidates for the ministry should be
sufficiently learned. They " dreaded to leave an illiterate
ministry to the churches when their present ministers should
lie in the dust." Hence, in October 1636, the foundation,
by the colony of Massachusetts, of a College at Newtown
(whose name was consequently changed to Cambridge), close
to Boston. The first endowment was by a vote of 40 O/. by
tin Court of the Colony, a large sum for such a purpose in a
colony which had hardly yet roads, buildings, or bridges;
and, a riti/eii, named John Harvard, having, at his death in
1638, left his library and TOO/, nmn i.. the foundation, it hid
a fair .start in that year as Harvard ' Off // • ' ''
University, the oldest university in the I'nited States. Its
first principal was a Nathaniel Eaton, a perfect Orbilius
Plagosus, who was dismissed in 1640, to make way for a
Miperior Cantal., named H.-nry I Minster. Already schools
in Massachusetts and the other colonies ; ami
» Palfrey, I. 406— 426 ; Hnnbury'* Roffor William- by American* ; among
w|«T« (1834), Uwrnnoir*
khar*! M.,.,,.,,1... l',,,l. \ II. < !..,, II. (1846) ind I I • 1862).
I :...-..! .:..-.| i. :. . :
564 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the first printing-press in America, a rickety attachment to
Harvard College, was at work in 1639. First it printed a
public document called the Freeman's Oath, then a Psalm-
book, and then (1640) a volume of poems by Mrs. Anne
Bradstreet. This is said to have been the first original work
printed in America. There had been plenty of rough com-
position before, but it was all in manuscript.1
No less among the 21, 000 or 22, 000 Independents forming
en masse the population of New England than among the
thousand or two of English Separatists whom we have seen
scattered through a few of the Dutch towns, and outnumbered
there by orthodox Church of England residents and Scottish
Presbyterian exiles, there had been, it will have been observed,
controversies and divisions. There had been Independency
outgoing Independency, Separatism beyond Separatism, " la-
borious orient ivory sphere in sphere." That is not to be
wondered at. Men will differ under any dispensation ; and
the amount of mutual animosity that may accompany their
differences will depend on the things differed about, and on
the temperament, education, and self-control of the contro-
versialists. Even the law of libel at any time in any com-
munity must be much a matter of convention. But, besides
this, it may be said to belong to the very theory of Church
Independency that it shall foster the development of theo-
logical differences and their strenuous expression. At first
sight, at all events, what one would expect under this system,
from its very nature, would be an increased tendency to
doctrinal differentiation, accompanied (unless for some law
in human nature diminishing animosity in differences as
differences become multiplied) by an increased display of
animosity over the differences. For it is not only the liberty
of any number of like-minded atoms to form themselves into
a church or society that Independency asserts, nor is it only the
entire mutual distinctness of the societies thus formed. There
is asserted also the right of extreme vigilance by every such
1 Palfrey, I. 548-9, and IE. 45-49 ; Trubner's Bibliographical Guide to American
Literature, xxx-xxxix.
NEW ENGLAND CONGREGATIONALISM. 565
society over new admissions into it, and of the freest mutual
criticism and censure of all once included in it, so that all
shall be kept to the strict mark of their covenant, and of the
code of their fellows. This agency of mutual stimulation,
vigilance, and remonstrance, ending, if need be, in the
formal censure of an erring brother, his suspension from
church privileges, or even his utter ejection and excommuni-
cation, is that, indeed, to which Independency principally
trusts for conservation of purity of faith as well as integrity
of morals. Hence, along with the large liberty of difference
provided by the system, one might expect an increased re-
sentment of difference. One might expect a cultivated habit
of fault-finding, and an unusual licence of invective against
members of a different communion, and of verbal hue-and-
cry after seceding or excommunicated brothers. This right
of invective, however, of prohibition of difference under pain
of being ill thought of and ill spoken of, exists, as I have
said, in all communities. It depends for the style of its
exercise on the education of the individual and the state of
the conventional law of libel, and is quite a distinct thing
from civil persecution, or prohibition of difference under direct
legal penalties to life, limb, or property. There may be
much personal and social intolerance, much want of charity,
much mutual obloquy and excommunication, where there is
IH -ilcct legal toleration of the differences concerned. How
was \« w England situated in this last respect ? That there
were religious disputes and differences in the population has
appeared sufficiently from our biographic notices of a few of
the leading New England ministers. The question now is,
how far those disputes and differences were mere incidents of
the Church History of the community, exhausted in those
verbal controversies and mutual censures and excommunica-
tions which the peculiar Church organization allowed ami
<'\vn encouraged, and how far they transcended this sphere
and encountered civil penalty. In other words, Were there
any directions of theological opinion for which there was
not legal liberty even in New England, with all its church
Independency ?
566 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
There were. Although it was for freedom of opinion and
worship that the Puritans had gone to New England, and
although, in recollection of this, they tried hard to be tolerant
of varieties of opinion among themselves, and not to disgrace
their new soil with any such apparatus of civil persecutions
and tortures for religious dissent as that from which they
had fled at home, they could not make up their minds to give
a carte llanche to everything. That they extinguished at once
several small attempts to import Prelacy and the Liturgy
among them, laying hold of the offenders and sending them
home in the first ship, may be passed over as mere acts of
self-protection, mere arrests of spies in their camp, while they
were entrenching themselves in their new ground, and Laud
had his schemes for troubling them.1 That they had strict
laws against Sabbath-breaking, and otherwise mixed up in
their police code as rules of social order what were really
Puritanisms, or special interpretations of Biblical ideas, may
also be passed over, as natural in their circumstances, and
sanctioned by a consent among themselves as complete as
that which forbade stealing, or fraud, or rioting. What
cannot be passed over, however, inasmuch as it met with
protests among themselves, and pointed to imperfections in
their theory of Church Independency, or at least to an in-
adequate adjustment as yet of their notions of that theory
with the full principles of Civil Liberty, was their prohibition
of several developments of strictly theological or eccle-
siastical opinion, which could not legitimately be described
as mere sedition, or even as transgressions of the essential
rule of Church Independency itself.
The theory of Independency being that the collective
Church in any State ought to consist solely of the voluntary
concourses of Christian believers within that State, drawn
1 "It was once under consultation "strangled in the first conception by
' of the Chief Physicians who were to "the violent breaking out of the
'take especial care of the Church's "troubles in Scotland."— So writes the
health to send a Bishop over to them Anglican Dr. Peter Heylyn, in his Life
' [the New Englanders] for their better of Laud (see Hanbury's Memorials,
' government, and to back him with II. 41 - 2) ; and the passage authenti-
some forces, to compel, if he were cates Laud's plans for the New Eng-
' not otherwise able to persuade, landers about 1637.
'obedience : but this design was
NEW ENGLAND CONGREGATIONALISM. 567
together by their like-mindedness, and forming so many
difU'rent particular churches, each distinct within itself,
there ensue at once, if one thinks of it, certain curious
questions as to the relations of the State to this Collective
( '1 lurch. Are there to be no relations whatever ? Is the
State to allow the concourses to go on within it, taking no
heed whether they are few or many, active or languishing,
what proportion of the population is whirled into them or
remains out of them, or what the concourses do within them-
selves in the way of doctrine and discipline, so long as civil
rights and the public peace are not violated ? This is
Church Independency at its purest. This is the Independ-
ency which avows the absolute separatedness of the sphere
of conscience from the sphere of civil polity, of the Kingdom
of Christ from the Kingdom of this World. If, however,
Church Independency, still retaining the name, stops short
of this extreme, what questions start up for it to answer ! Is
the State itself to be in a manner Christian, and, if so, in
what manner, and by what methods apart from the Church ?
Is it the State's duty to stimulate the formation of the con-
courses of believers within itself ? Is it to do its best to see
that all the population are brought within the concourses ;
or, in other words, are brought to profess Christianity in some
society or other ; and, for that purpose, is it to have a right
to look after those who would lurk in the interstices between
the existing churches ? As it is the rule of Independency that
each church admits its own members, and ought to be vigilant
as to the sufficient faith and grace of those whom it admits, the
State could hardly be vested with the power of compulsion
of all into membership with the existing churches. For lo !
though it might drive all to the doors of these churches, the
poor wretches would be met at each door with a rejection as
not qualified for membership. Well then, might there be a
in i< 1« lie course ? Might the State at least compel a habit of
c-hurch-ur"iiiLr, «>f att.-inlance at some place of Christian in-
struction and worship, so that all might be brought within
Christian influences, and have a chance of becoming qualified
for church-membership ^um -Nvli.-iv ' \\\\\ will any kind of
568 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
church-membership do, or is the State to have the right of
determining what kind of church-membership shall be satis-
factory ? There might be concourses of Pagans, Turks, or
Atheists, calling themselves churches ; and undoubtedly there
would be such, if membership of some church were compul-
sory but there were no limit as to the sort of church that
would do. Must the allowed concourses in churches then be
bond fide Christian ? In that case must it not be reserved
for the State to settle what shall be considered bond fide
Christianity ? There is an orthodox Christianity, or there
are a number of forms of Christianity varying so slightly, or
all so respectably supported, that they may pass collectively
as orthodox ; but there are also heresies, errors, queer beliefs,
professed by particular minds, or even by considerable
numbers of persons, as truths painfully derived from the
Bible, and binding on the conscience of genuine Christians.
A sensible State government would not be very harsh in its
judgment among such diversities, and would allow a reason-
able latitude. But still, if the principle were that the State
had any business whatever with Religion, it would be sure to
find that some of the sets of beliefs offering themselves as
strictly Christian, and demanding the right of embodying
themselves in churches, were barely entitled to that recogni-
tion. In short, the State would have to exercise a constant
supervision over the churches formed or forming themselves
within it, calling for their creeds and articles of agreement,
and deciding whether they were satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
It would have to see that fundamental error did not arise
within churches already formed, and that all new churches
formed were sufficiently of the right sort.
All these questions as to the relations of Church and State
had actually arisen in the history of English Independency,
and they had been answered by such a rough practical com-
promise in the institutions of New England Independency
as left that Independency far short of theoretical Independ-
ency at its purest.
What opinion had been held by the strange Eobert Brown,
the originator of English Independency, on the subject of the
W ENGLAND CONGREGATIONALISM. 569
relations of Church and State, or the power of the Civil
Magistrate in the formation and regulation of churches, it
might interest us to know. Certain it is that by his. best
known successors, amid all their denunciations of the Church
of England and their expositions of the principle of Congrega-
tionalism, there had been an explicit admission of some such
power. Thus Barrowe and Greenwood, the first martyrs on
the scaffold for Separatism, had written jointly in an Epistle
to Lord Burleigh, " We acknowledge that the Prince ought
" to compel all subjects to the hearing of God's word in the
" public exercises of the Church," adding, " Yet cannot the
' Prince compel any to be a member of the Church, or the
" Church to receive any without assurance by public pro-
" fession of their own faith." l Again Barrowe separately
had written, " The Prince is charged, and in duty ought, to
" see the ministers of the Church do their duty and teach
" the law of God diligently and sincerely " ; and Greenwood,
" The magistrate ought to compel the infidels to hear the
" doctrine of the Church, and also, with the approbation of
" the Church, to send forth meet men, with gifts and graces,
" to instruct the infidels." * So, even more strongly, Johnson,
the first pastor of the English Separatists in Amsterdam.
" Princes," he had said, "may and ought, within their do-
" minions, to abolish all false worship and all false ministries
" whatsoever, and to establish the true worship and ministry
" appointed by God in his word, commanding and compelling
" thrir subjects to come into and practise no other but this;
" yet must they leave it unto God to persuade the conscience,
" and to add to his Church, from time to time, such as shall
" be saved." 8 Nay, even Robinson, the liberal Robinson, the
founder of the Independency which had been most accepted,
ha<l written to the same effect. " That godly magistrates,
he said, "are by compulsion to repress public and notable
" idolatry, as also to provi<l« that the truth of God, in his
" ordinance, !>•• taught and published in their dominions, I
no doubt : it may be also it is not unlawful tor tln-m.
' Quoted in Hanl.ury'H M.-in. I. 52. In-l,-,.- • i III. 44.
« <Juotod in I -f v.l ii.i.l. III. i:..
570 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" by some penalty or other, to provoke their subjects univer-
" sally unto hearing for their instruction and conversion ;
" yea, to grant they may inflict the same upon them, if, after
" due teaching, they offer not themselves unto the Church."1
There were not wanting, as we shall see in time, protests
against this view of the Civil Magistrate's power by some of
the other Separatists, contemporaries of Johnson and Robin -
son ; but that it was the view of all those who professed the
moderate or Eobinsonian Independency is proved beyond
doubt by the fact that in a formal Confession of Faith put
forth in 1616 by the first avowedly Independent congrega-
tion in London, established in that year by Robinson's friend
Henry Jacob on his return from Holland, there occurs this
statement : " We believe that we, and all true visible
" churches, ought to be overseen, and kept in good order
" and peace, and ought to be governed, under Christ, both
" supremely and also subordinately, by the Civil Magistrate ;
" yea, in causes of religion, when need is." 2
The Independency carried over to New England being
substantially the Robinsonian Independency, this view of
the power of the Civil Magistrate in matters of religion was
inherent in it from the outset. The Church of New England
in 1640 could regard itself as the first instance of a Church
of an entire community established on the system of Inde-
pendency ; but still, to all intents and purposes, it was a
State Church. Its difference from the State Churches of
England and Scotland then existing was that it was a
State Church on the principle of Congregationalism, whereas
they were State Churches on the principles of Prelacy and
Presbyterianism respectively. This difference was certainly
not unimportant : it affected very considerably the extent
and mode of the interconnexion between Church and State.
Thus the churches in New England, to the year 1640 and
beyond, were not upheld, nor their ministers paid, by tithes,
or from the public funds in any form. Save that they had
1 Quoted in Fletcher's History of 301, 302 ; where indeed all the twenty-
Independency, III. 45. eight Articles of the Confession are
2 Quoted in Hanbury's Memorials, I. given (pp. 293—304).
NEW ENGLAND CONGREGATIONALISM. 571
the use of the common meeting-houses in towns (which, I
suppose, were erected at the public expense), the congrega-
tions paid all the expenses of their worship, including the
stipends of their pastors and teachers, out of their own volun-
tary offerings in the churches on Sundays, or out of these
together with rates agreed upon among themselves. This
was in accordance with the doctrine of Independency on the
subject of the maintenance of ministers, as it had been ex-
pressed, though with some doubt, in the Confession of the
first London congregation of Independents in 1616. "We
" believe," said the 26th Article of that Confession, "that tithes
" for the pastor's maintenance under the Gospel are not the
" just and due means thereof: howbeit yet we do not think
" these tithes absolutely unlawful if they remain voluntary ;
" but when they are made necessary we think them not so
" lawful. The same do we judge also of whatsoever other
" set maintenance for ministers of the Gospel established by
" temporal laws. We grant for the minister's security such
" established maintenance is best ; but, for preserving due
" freedom in the congregation, sincerity in religion, and
" sanctity in the whole Hock, the congregation's voluntary
" and conscionable contribution for their pastor's sustenance
and maintenance is, doubtless, the safest and most approved,
" nay, it seemeth, the only, way ; wherewith the Apostles
caused their times to be content." l Clearly the accept-
ance by the New England Independents of the method so
in<li< -ated did slacken the State's grip of the Church and tin-
Church's dependence on the State. Nevertheless the New
i nd church was a State Church after a fashion. The
pious Puritans who had expatriated themselves from cruel
ml had no other idea than that of founding in the
wilderness a commonwealth pervaded and regulated by the
strictest legislation of the P.ihlc, and every man, woman, and
child in which should walk, all their lives long, in the ways
• •f Puritan Christianity. Hence, by an implied fundamental
(nm ] »act from the first in all the colonies, regular attendance
at c-lmreli was compulsory on every one. As this had been
> llanl.ury. I. 301.
572 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
the law in England, and was an axiom of the new polity so
vital that the chance of dissent from it was not dreamt of,
it hardly required formal statement ; but it was positively
enacted by the law of Massachusetts. The State, therefore,
throughout New England, was related to the Church in so
far at least that it compelled church-attendance. If it re-
frained from also compelling church-membership, that was
because such additional compulsion in any open manner
would have outraged the prime maxim of Independency,
which made the admission of members to any congregation
the solemn right of that congregation only. But, indirectly,
there was a compulsion by the State even to this church-
membership which it could not itself confer. A premium
was put upon church -membership by political practice;
in other words, civil disabilities and inconveniences were
attached to the want of it. Thus both in Massachusetts
and in New Haven church-membership was a condition of
the franchise. " It is ordered and agreed that, for the time
" to come, no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this
" body -politic but such as are members of some of the
" churches within the limits of the same " : such were the
words of an Act of the General Court of Massachusetts in
1631 ; and New Haven followed the example. There was
no such expressed rule in the constitutions of New Plymouth
and Connecticut colonies ; but there seems to have been
tantamount custom. Actually, in each colony, the freemen
in whose hands the power lay, who made the laws, imposed
the taxes, and transacted public business of all kinds, were
the assembled members of the churches of the colony.
Church-membership, or certificated religious soundness, was
the thing most in their heads when they were called upon to
decide on the fitness of any one to receive or retain the fran-
chise. What then ? What but that they, the State, must
keep their eye on the churches that conferred this precious
prerequisite to the franchise, and must see that they were all
of such a sort that their certificates might be trusted ? And
so, despite the principle of Congregationalism, the State, in
various practical ways, was critic and lord of the churches,
NK\V KX<JLAND HKKKSIES. 573
It had its hands twined in their concerns. It felt it>< ll
bound, even in State polity, to prevent the formation of false
or heretical churches, through which black sheep might
insinuate themselves into the franchise, and also to exercise
a supervision over churches right in faith at their commence-
ment, to secure that they did not lapse.1
Imbued with such notions of a certain inalienable duty of
the civil power in matters of belief and conscience, the New
Englanders, though creditably anxious on the whole to allow
freedom of opinion and speech in their commonwealth, had
resorted to actual persecution, or something like it, in their
treatment of at least three movements or developments of
thought that had appeared among them : — (1.) The Individual-
ism of Eager Williams. The opinions by which this extra-
ordinary man perplexed New England society, from the first
moment of his arrival in it, were, as we have seen, various ;
nor would it be easy to embrace them all in one name. One
of his eccentricities was his extreme and uncompromising
Separatism, condemning the mere semi-Separatism of senti-
ment which the New Englanders had derived from Robinson
and Jacob, and protesting, with a heat beyond that of the
first Brownists, against the least act implying recognition
of the Church of England as a true Church in any sense.
Another was his plaguy tenet about Indian rights. Both
these together, however, might have been pardoned in a man
of such fine genius and such excellent heart, but for what I
have called his " Individualism." We shall' have to take
more particular account hereafter of this drift of Williams's
speculations ; meanwhile it is enough to say that it con-
sisted in an assertion of the absolute right of the indi-
vidual to think and act in religions mutters by his own
lights, and a denial /// tntu of that notion of the State's con-
cern with religion which N.-w Knidand, imitating older
countries, had permitted to remain at the foundation of her
polity. II • positions nf this doctrine were s<> fervid,
and hnuiu'ht him so n.-.ir t«. what .seeiin-d sedition or the
preaching of anarchy, that the authorities of Massachusetts,
* Pnlfivy. II. Hi rt fj.: I. :tll -•
574 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
as we have seen, first roused all Salem against him, and then
banished him out of the colony altogether to the wilds of
Narraganset Bay. (2.) Anabaptism. Even before 1640 there
were a few Baptists in New England, stigmatised there, as in
the old world, with the name of Anabaptists, in order to
identify them with the famous German Anabaptists of the
Reformation epoch, of whose excesses there were horrible
traditions. Their main difference, however, from the Inde-
pendents among whom they were dispersed was simply their
Anti-Psedobaptism, or objection to the baptism of infants,
though some conjoined with this Arminian views of free-will
and the extent of redemption. Now, just as Robinson in
Holland had denounced Smyth for his Baptist heresy, so the
Independents of New England would not acknowledge Bap-
tists as properly within the pale of Christian law. Probably
because they were few and scattered, one does not hear as yet
of direct persecution of them by the civil authorities, though
that was to come in time. But individuals known to hold
Baptist opinions were looked on coldly and made uncomfort-
able. Thus Mr. Chauncey, in spite of his merits, was kept
back because he avowed such opinions ; and Hanserd Knollys,
partly for the same reason, seems to have found no rest for the
sole of his foot in Massachusetts. It was also the climax of
Roger Williams's offences that, in his Narraganset retreat, he
had turned Baptist. (3.) Antinomianism. This is the name
given to a set of opinions, first propagated in Germany by
John Agricola; a contemporary of Luther, to the effect that,
as men are justified by faith alone, true Christians are not to
be tried or ascertained by the consistency of their conduct
with the merely moral law. Now, there had been a most
picturesque outbreak of some such opinions in Massachusetts.
A Mrs. Ann Hutchinson, " a gentlewoman of an haughty
carriage, busy spirit, competent wit, and a voluble tongue,"
had come over in 1634 with her husband and children from
their home in Lincolnshire. One of her inducements was
that she might not lose the ministrations of her favourite
Mr. Cotton, who had left Boston in Lincolnshire for Boston in
New England in the preceding year. Even on the voyage out
NEW ENGLAND III KKSIK8: MRS. HUTCH1NSON. 575
slu- had uttered opinions which some of her fellow-passengers
thought questionable ; and no sooner had she and her husband
settled in Boston, and become members of Mr. Cotton's chuivli,
than she began to be a power in the place. It was the custom
of the men of the congregation to hold meetings for recapitulat-
\Ir. Cotton's sermons and discussing points suggested by
them. Mrs. Hutchinson got up a twice-a-week meeting of the
women for the same purpose, and was the chief speaker in
those gatherings. There she began to ventilate her " two
dangerous errors " : viz. " that the person of the Holy Ghost
dwells in a justified person," and " that no sanctification can
help to evidence to us our justification." Branching out
from these, in the course of a year or two, by her eloquence,
as well as by her generous activity among the sick and dis-
tressed, she had brought a large number of the Boston people,
men as well as women, into sympathy with her. She was
called fondly " THE NON-SUCH " (an anagram of her name
" Hutchinson," if spelt " Hutchenson ") ; and, when she began
to denounce the New England ministers generally as being
mere preachers of a dry " Covenant of Works," Boston was
not sure but she might be right. Mr. Cotton, and her own
brother-in-law Wheelwright (which last had come out from
Ki inland in the meantime), were the ministers who chiefly satis-
fied her ; and they in turn stood by her. In short, Massachu-
setts was divided, socially and politically, into a " Covenant of
Works "party and a Hutchinsonian, Antinomian, or "Covenant
o f < ; race " party. The former, including almost all the ministers
out of Boston, found themselves attacked, and could not but
ret a Hate. It was now the year of young Vane's governorship
(1G36), and the Hutchinsonians were strong in his support;
while ex-go venior Winthrop led the other party. Hu;J i I
went with \Vimhrop, and did not hesitate to reprove Vane to
his face. Lidding him " emisider his youth, and short experi-
ence <-r th« ways of God, and to beware of peremptory con-
clusions, which In* perceived him to be very apt unto." Wilder
and wilder grew the war of words, and of electioneering
, tin- 1 1 utehinsmiians appearing to have tin* better. Hut,
the Anti-Hutehin-uniaiis having inaiu-.-d. in May (1637), to
576 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
bring back Winthrop into the Governorship, with others of his
party in subordinate posts, and Vane having shortly afterwards
departed for England, the tide was turned. At a synod of all
the ministers of the colony, held, with the consent of the
magistrates, at Newtown, in August 1637, eighty-two opinions
said to be spreading in the colony were condemned as erro-
neous, Mrs. Hutchinson's heresies figuring most prominently.
" It was proved that more than a score of Antinomian and
Familistical errors had been held forth by her " ; and so, after
some delay, " the sentence of excommunication was passed
upon her." Even Mr. Cotton gave his consent to this condem-
nation. The civil authorities then felt themselves entitled to
press certain charges of sedition, contumacy, and the like,
which they had ready, against the culprits ; and, before the end
of the year, sentences of banishment from the colony were
pronounced against Mrs. Hutchinson, Mr. Wheelwright, and
another, while about a dozen more were disfranchised, or fined,
or both, some were suffered to withdraw in a kind of stipu-
lated self- banishment, and as many as seventy-six were other-
wise punished. Thus was brought about what is known in
the history of Massachusetts as the Antinomian Dispersion.
Wheelwright, as we saw, withdrew for a time to the out-
lying Plantations north of Massachusetts (New Hampshire
and Maine), where there was a rough refuge, and plenty of
work, for wanderers like him and Hanserd Knollys. It was
Mrs. Hutchinson's intention to follow him thither ; but, on
farther advice, she, her husband, and some of their adherents,
resolved on a new plantation of their own, quite on the other
extreme of New England as then colonized, — i.e. south beyond
New Haven, and about either Long Island or Delaware Bay,
as the Dutch might permit. Their journey in this direction,
however, leading them to visit Koger Williams at his planta-
tion of Providence, then two years old, that worthy man
entered heartily into their counsels, and recommended them
not to persist in going so far south, but to become neighbours
of his on Ehode Island, then called Aquetnet. Here, accord-
ingly (March 1638), was founded a little community of demo-
cratic Antinomians ; which, considerably increased by new
NEW ENGLAND HKKl-IKs: MRS. HUTCHIN80N. 577
comers, was split, by dissensions within itself, into the two
towns of Portsmouth and Newport, at opposite ends of Rhode
Island. It was in the first of these that the Antinomian
heroine, and her husband, Mr. William Hutchinson, " a man
of very mild temper and weak parts, and wholly guided
by his wife," took up their dwelling. Mr. Hutchinson was, in
fact, the principal man in Portsmouth, while Newport was
represented in chief by Mr. Coddington, another of the dis-
persed Antiuomians. But in 1 640, with a view to the
possibility of a patent from England that should erect the
settlements in Rhode Island, with the neighbouring one of
Providence, into a distinct colony, Newport and Portsmouth
united themselves in a common jurisdiction, choosing Cod-
dington to be first Governor of the two-towned Island, and
Hutchinson to be one of his Assistants. This is the last we
hear of Mr. Hutchinson. He died probably in the following
year ; for in 1642 Mrs. Hutchinson is heard of as " a widow,"
with her family, including a married daughter, that daughter's
husband, and young children of theirs, still living in Ports-
mouth, but getting weary of it and of Rhode Island, and
having some new views about the " unlawfulness of magis-
tracy." Alas ! hers was to be a tragic end. What it was we
shall see. Meanwhile it is with some satisfaction that one
leaves her in Rhode Island, so near to Roger Williams.
Those two, I should say, — this man, yet in his prime, from
Carmarthenshire, and this woman, from Lincolnshire, now with
wrinkles round her eloquent eyes, — were the two spirits in
New England that had most of the incalculable in them, and
had shot farthest ahead in the speculative gloom. Williams,
long after Mrs. Hutchinson was dead, and had become a myth
or a monster in the imagination of the orthodox religious
world, defended her memory. He had !•< <-n " familiarly
acquainted " with her, he told people who talked of her from
hearsay as doubtlessly one of the damned ; and he " spake
much good " of her.1
t ton Mather's 37. < . II I I .Ifrey'a History of New
England, I. 472-516, and 606-609.
VOL. II 2 P
578 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY : V. ITS CONTINUATION IN HOLLAND
(1620—1640).
Since 1620 New England had been preferable to Holland
as a refuge for English Puritans bent on emigrating. Still,
Holland was near to England, while America was far off;
and the use of Holland as an asylum for English Separatists
had not quite ceased.
What had become of the remains of Johnson's English
congregation in Emden, of Jacob's in Middleburg, and even
of Robinson's in Leyden, or what ministers succeeded, in
these towns respectively, those three chief's of early English
Independency, the records hardly permit us to see. But
in the great city of Amsterdam the tradition is more
distinct. There is still in Amsterdam an alley known as
" The Brownists' Gang " ; and there is no doubt that the
successor of Ainsworth in the ministry to the English
Brownists or Independents who met in that alley was a
certain John Canne, who is remembered yet by antiquaries
in literature as the author of many controversial tracts, and
of a learned edition of the Bible with marginal references.
Besides being pastor of this congregation, he had a printer's
office in Amsterdam, and, if contemporary gossip is to be
believed, " a brandery, or aquavitae shop," and also " an
alchemist's laboratory," there or somewhere else. His Inde-
pendency was of the ultra- Separatist order, if indeed he was
not an avowed Baptist ; and hence there was a split in his
congregation ; but, though he is found visiting England occa-
sionally, he had his head-quarters in Amsterdam from 1622
to 1667. Two other Dutch towns, however, not heard of
before as sheltering English Independents, are now found
sharing that distinction with Amsterdam. These are Arnheim
and Rotterdam. Settled in Arnheim, one of the pleasantest
of the Dutch towns, are found, between 1638 and 1640,
Mr. Thomas Goodwin and Mr. Philip Nye, acting as co-
pastors to a small number of English families associated
together on the Congregationalist principle, not only with
ANGLO-DUTCH LNDEl'KNDENCY CONTINUED. 579
the consent of the kindly Dutch authorities, but even with
tin- use of one of their churches, and a certain stated public-
allowance. In the larger city of Rotterdam English Con-
gregationalists were numerous, and were treated with equal
indulgence. Here, in the year 1633, in the humble capacity
of minister to an English Congregational ist church, but with
a European fame for his learning and his writings against
the Arminiaus, died Dr. William Ames, better known by
his Latinized name of Amesius. Conspicuous as a Non-
conformist at Cambridge University in the beginning of
the reign of James, he had been driven abroad by Bancroft's
severity as long ago as 1610, and, after living for some time
at the Hague, he had accepted (1622) a professorship in
the University of Franeker in Friesland. Here he had
made his great reputation as a teacher and a writer, so
that at the Synod of Dort his place was among the fore-
most. But, his health giving way at Franeker, he had
resigned his professorship there in 1632, and accepted
the charge among his countrymen in Rotterdam. His co-
minister there was no other than Hugh Peters ; who in fact
had formed the congregation before Ames came, and obtained
for it the use of a wooden 1 mi Id ing originally belonging
to a club or society of Dutch debaters. Though Ames's
principles had never been those of the Separatists or extreme
Hrownists, and he might be claimed as a semi-Presbyterian,
lii> ii"tions of Church discipline were really Congrega-
tionalist, and lie and Peters got on well together during
tin- few months of their co-ministry. " Learn. -d Amesius,"
said Peters long afterwards, " breathed his last breuth
' into my IKJSOIH, who Idt his professorship in Friesland
• to live with me, localise of my church's independency
" at Rotterdam, Ee waa my colleague and chosen brother
" to the ehuieh when- I was an unworthy pastor." It had
been Ames's intention to migrate ut last to New Midland ;
and, though ihU inleniinn was fiuMiat'-d by hi- death, the
New Kn;_daiiders did have the honour ..!' n-r.-iviii- aniMii- them
some of hi> family, with his collection of books. Nay, two
years after Anna's death. I'eters himself had left Rotterdam
580 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
for New England (1635). But the Eotterdam church was not
extinguished. It was still kept up, or indeed divided into two,
by the arrival from England, in 1637-39, of Mr. Jeremiah
Burroughs, Mr. William Bridge, and Mr. Sidrach Simpson.
These three Eotterdam ministers, with Goodwin and Nye in
Arnheim (unless we add Canne in Amsterdam), were the
visible representatives of English Independency in Holland
in that year 1640 to which our narrative has brought down
the history of the massive Independency of New England.
All the five had been regularly educated for the Church of
England. Four of them were of Cambridge training ; only
Nye was from Oxford. 1
ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY : VI. ITS PERSISTENCE IN ENGLAND
(1632—1640).
Thus, in 1640, besides the massive Independency of the
distant Commonwealth of New England, developed there in
the preceding twenty years out of the Eobinsonian Independ-
ency which had been nursed in Holland, there was still to be
seen in Holland itself a vigorous, though small, exhibition of
Independency, partly transmitted from the Eobinsonian age,
partly of more recent origin. Add now, to complete our esti-
mate of the total dimensions of English Independency in the
year 1640, the fact that even within England and Wales,
despite the utmost vigilance of Laud, native Independency
was far from being extinct.
All through James's reign, while old Brown himself was
still alive, and chuckling in his Northamptonshire living over
his past handiwork, there had remained a pent-up Brownism
in England and Wales, not sufficiently drawn off by the
slender emigration to Holland, and breaking out sporadically
in conventicles and field-preachings. And so hitherto into
the reign of Charles, though there was now the larger outlet
of the American emigration. Erom the very nature of the case
1 Steven's valuable Account of British don, IV. 125 — 136; Hanbury's Me-
Churches in the Netherlands, appended morials. I. 257, and II. 59, 60 ; Fuller's
(pp. 257—344) to his History of the Church History, III. 461—465 ; Neal's
Scottish Church in Rotterdam (1833); Purftans, II. 317; Bayle's Diet., art.
Wilson's Dissenting Churches in Lon- Amesius.
PERSISTENCE OF ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY. 581
the records of this transmitted Brownist agitation within the
bosom of English society are fragmentary and discontinuous.
A mischievous nest of Separatists pounced upon here; an
anonymous travelling Anabaptist preaching in some village
and arrested: that is nearly all ! A few names, however,
and momentary visions of Brownist excitements in whole
districts, do emerge into light. Kent, Norfolk, Gloucester-
shire, and South Wales, seem to have abounded most in the
Brownist leaven. In South Wales a Mr. Wroth, rector of
Llanvaches in Monmouthshire, began, about 1634, an irregu-
lar ministry or apostleship, which at length took the form of
avowed Congregationalism. With his movement was com-
bined one by a William Thomas, a Welsh Baptist ; and the
congregations in South Wales formed between them, and
counting a Mr. Cradock, a Mr. Symonds, a Mr. Walter, and
a Mr. Moston, among their ministers, are said to have con-
sisted of mixed Baptists and Paedobaptists amicably united
and leaving Baptism an open question among them. The
city of Bristol became a focus of this Welsh or West of
Knjrlaml Independency ; and as one of the first and most
intrepid Independents of that city there is remembered a
widow, named Mrs. Kelly, who kept a shop in High Street, and
afterwards married a Mr. Hazard, one of the city ministers.
She did much to assert and maintain Congregationalism in
Bristol ; and, after she became Mrs. Hazard, she and her
Imsliaiid made a habit of receiving in their house poor
Separatist families from all parts, coming to Bristol to embark
for New England.1 In London itself, under Laud's very
eyes, Independency had wriggled on. The small London
congregation of Arminian Baptists, or extreme Separatists,
formed about 1611 by Thomas Helwisse and John Murton,
had indeed vanished, or died, through persecution of its mem-
bers, into an obscurity now impenetrable. But Henry Jacob's
subsequent institution in 1616 of the less Separatist and
more Calvinistic church of Robinsonian Independents, called
the first London church of Independents proper, had survived
r\ • n the blow inflicted on it in 1632 in the ministry of Jacob's
> Fletcher'8 Hwtory of Independoncy, III. lHft-198.
582 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
successor Lathorp (antt, p. 544). When Lathorp was at
length released from prison (1634), he had to emigrate to
America ; but his persevering scantling of a congregation
found (1635 or 1636) a new pastor in Mr. Henry Jessey,
M.A. of St. John's College, Cambridge, who had been a
parish minister in Yorkshire, but had been ejected for non-
conformity. Here and there in London, — in Queenhithe, about
Tower Hill, anywhere, — Mr. Jessey and his little flock met,
dodging the Bishop's pursuivants as well as they could ; and
they were still extant in 1640, engaged in the same process,
but sorely fatigued by it and seemingly at their last gasp. 1
If in this critical year, 1640, there was, besides the avowed
Independent Mr. Jessey, any other man in London, of Uni-
versity training and in the clerical profession, to whom we
may now point as also a partisan of Independency rather
than of Presbyterianism, it was John Goodwin, M.A., vicar
of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street. This, at all events, is the
point at which he may be best introduced to notice ; and, as
he is to be of some consequence henceforth in our History,
the reader will please to distinguish him at once from his
namesake, Mr. Thomas Goodwin, whom we have left at
Arnheim. John Goodwin was by no means Thomas. He
was a Norfolk man by birth, had been educated at Queen's
College, Cambridge, and become a fellow of that College, and
had been called to the incumbency in Coleman Street in
December 1633, by the choice of the parishioners, in succes-
sion to their last vicar, the exiled Mr. Davenport, He was
then exactly forty years of age. During the seven years of
his incumbency that had elapsed in 1640 he had become
more and more a marked man in London. He had intro-
duced a somewhat new style of preaching, neither elaborately
analytic, with intricate divisions and subdivisions, like that
of many Puritans, nor hot and declamatory, like that of
others, but fulfilling Aristotle's notion in his Ehetoric (the
reference is Goodwin's own) that a real orator's anxiety ought
not so much to be to persuade, as " to speak things pertinent
and proper to persuade." In other words, he tried to make
1 Wilson's Dissenting Churches in London, I. 41—43.
JOHN GOODWIN. 583
the matter of his discourses instructive, reasonable, and in-
teresting, and he took some pains with their style. His
parishioners, among whom were Alderman Pennington and
other citizens of good means and superior tastes, appear
greatly to have relished this intellectual style of preaching,
and to have become proud of their pastor. What though
there had crept about suspicions that Mr. Goodwin was not
altogether sound in the faith, that there was a tendency in
his discourses to ' Arminianism, or even to Socinianism ?
Those were the mere whisperings of Puritan ministers round
about him, envious of his parts and his popularity ! Still
the suspicions had increased, and it had become clear that
Mr. Goodwin was not a Puritan of the common type, but a
Puritan sui generis, a rationalistic Puritan. On the other
hand, whatever promise of Arminianism there was in him
had not recommended him to Laud. In 1637, and again in
1638, Laud had had him under admonition, and had reported
him by name to the King as an unsatisfactory kind of per-
son, not obedient to rule, and with "some over-niceties"
which might occasion trouble; and in 1640 he made good
Laud's anticipation by publicly protesting and jpetitiouing,
with others, against Laud's tyrannical new Canons passed in
the Convocation of that year. He was then forty-seven years
of age, and had published very little. That he had by this
time conceived some notions tending to Independency in
Church government is mainly an inference from his subse-
quent actions ; but it is a fair inference, if not inevitable.
At all events, in 1640, the Vicar of St. Stephen's, Coleman
Street, Alderman Pennington's good friend and pastor, an<!
a h-ii-ml also of Hampden's mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Hampden,
then living in Westminster, was a man likely to play an
active part, should there be occasion, and to go very far.
As his JM straits present him in his pulpit dress, he was a
man of calm general appearance, with a large round head
hrM tightly in a skull-cap behind the temples and ears, a
broad brow, a nose rather fine and ironical, and a face alto-
gether suggesting ability and opinionativeness blended with
ingenuousness and composure. One would imagine him, as
584 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTOKY OF HIS TIME.
indeed he is afterwards found, a man who would fight con-
tinuously and hit hard, and yet always with fairness, some
care of literary expression, and cool command of temper.
Milton, I am sure, knew him well already by character and
reputation, if not personally ; and they were to be bracketed
together most remarkably in their subsequent lives.1
ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY : VII. ITS REINVIGORATION (1640—1643).
With respect, therefore, to the theory of Church government
called Independency or Congregationalism, the state of the
case in 1 640 maybe thus summed up: — There was an unknown
amount of traditional affection for the theory, even where it
could not be articulately stated, in the native and popular
Anti-Prelacy of England itself. This vague and diffused
Independency had also a few champions in known Separatist
ministers, who had managed to remain in England through
all difficulties, and perhaps it had well-wishers in a private
opinionist or two, like John Goodwin, regularly in orders in
the Church of England ; but the effective mass of English-
born Independency lay wholly without the bounds of England,
partly in little curdlings of Separatists or semi -Separatists
among the English exiles in some of the towns of Holland,
but chiefly, and in most assured completeness both of bulk
and of detail, in the incipient Transatlantic Commonwealth
of New England. One thing, however, was certain all the
while. Those two effective aggregations of English-born In-
dependency beyond the bounds of England, — the small Dutch
scattering and the massive American extension, — were not
dissociated from England, had not learnt to be foreign to
her, but were in correspondence with her, in constant survey
of her concerns, and attached to her by such homeward
yearnings that, on the least opportunity, the least signal
given, they would leap back upon her shores.
The opportunity came, and the signal was given, in
November 1640, when the Long Parliament met. It was
1 Wilson's Dissenting Churches, II. 403 et seo. ; Jackson's Life of John Good-
win (1822), pp. 1—55.
REINVIGOKATION OF INDEPENDENCY, 1640-43. 585
as if England then proclaimed to all her exiles for opinion
" Ye need be exiles no more." Accordingly, between that
date and the meeting of the Westminster Assembly in July
1643, we have the interesting phenomenon of a return of some
of the conspicuous representatives of Independency both from
Holland and from New England.
From Holland there returned, in the winter of 1640-1, five
out of the six Congregationalist ministers who had there
found shelter. Thomas Goodwin returned from Arnheim, to
set up a congregation in St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, London ;
1' hi lip Nye from Arnheim, to become minister of Kimbolton
parish in Hunts ; William Bridge from Rotterdam, to become
minister of Yarmouth, Norfolk; and Jeremiah Burroughs
and Sidrach Simpson also from Rotterdam, to be preachers
or lecturers in London. The single remaining Anglo-Dutch
Independent minister of any celebrity, John Canne of
Amsterdam, seems also to have made a Hying visit to Lon-
don, bringing with him for English circulation tracts in
favour of Independency and Separatism, which he had
written and printed in Amsterdam.1— —From America
return was not so easy as from Holland ; and the imme-
diate effect upon America of the changed state of things
in England was rather that of stopping the emigration to
New England that had so long been going on. The effect in
ihU way was extraordinary. All at once, in 1640, the
tendency of English Nonconformists to America ceased, and
this because the promise of a reform in the Church and State
at home made " all men," as Winthrop said, " to stay in Eng-
land in expectation of a new world." American historians even
tell us that not till after the lapse of a century and a quarter
from 1640 was the emigration from the mother-country to
New England resumed to any perceptible extent, and that the
growth of population in New England during all that while
was but the native increase of the 21,000 or 22,000 KM--
» Baillie speak*, under date " Lon- tion with himself and others ; t
don, March 15, 1640-1 " (I. 811), of four months after the meeting of the
".»// the EnKliah minuter* of Holland Long Parliament. I do not think he
who are for the New England way " as included Canne, hut only the other
then already returned and in convorwi- five.
586 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
lish originally imported between 1620 and 1640. But from
1. 640, we are also told, there even set in a return current, which
did not cease to flow for that same century and a quarter,
so that, in that period, more persons passed back from New
England to the mother-country than went out from the
mother-country to New England. We are concerned here only
with the earliest of these restorations to England of men who
had tasted the transatlantic world. Vane, the young ex-Gover-
nor of Massachusetts, may, in courtesy, head the list, though
his return had been in 1637, when he had been an American
for only two years, and when there was no prospect in England
as yet of the break-up of Thorough. But next may be named
Hugh Peters. His return was really symptomatic. He was
deputed by the General Court of the colony of Massachusetts
in June 1641 to proceed to England, in conjunction with Mr.
Thomas Welde, minister of Eoxbury, and William Hibbens, a
merchant of Boston, "upon some weighty occasions," i.e. to
make some arrangements with English creditors of the colony,
but at the same time to congratulate the popular chiefs of the
Long Parliament, and offer them any advice that might be
required " for the settling of the right form of Church
discipline." Both he and Welde meant to return to New
England, but neither of them ever did; Peters, in fact, very
soon after his arrival, being lured into Parliamentary employ-
ment, and sent, first of all, as preacher and general agent into
Ireland, then in the beginning of its rebellion. A somewhat
later re-importation than Peters and Welde was the poor
Baptist wanderer, Hanserd Knollys ; who, after three years of
knocking about in New England, had made up his mind
that he might as well be knocked about in old England,
and came back for a long futurity of that experience. He
arrived in London, in great poverty, Dec. 1641, and took up
some kind of domicile in Tower Hill, nominally to teach a
few boys, but with an eye to furtive preaching. Thus by
the end of 1641 there were at least three New England
ministers back in the British Islands. These, however, were
but the harbingers of an eager flight of many more New
Englanders back to the mother-land, some for permanent
IM IN\ KiORATION OF INDKI'KNDENCY, 1640-43. 587
stay, others merely on temporary visits. One or two more
ministers were among them : Imt the majority were laymen,
either heads or younger scions of leading families in the
c«>l..nies. New England historians tell us of Winthrops,
\Vinslows, Sedgwicks, Stoujjhtons, Fenwicks, Downings,
Mathers, Aliens, and others, who came over to England
in this way, and even performed parts of some consequence
in the Parliamentary service-, or afterwards in the service of
the Protectorate ; and they dwell with natural pride on the
fact that some of the best of these were strictly of New
England breeding, the earliest students and graduates of
Harvard College, Massachusetts.1
Even had there been no return in 1641 of the five
Independent English ministers from Holland, and no begin-
ning in that year of a movement back from the New England
colonies, there would doubtless, within that year, have been
an indigenous reappearance, in England, of the theory of
Independency. For the English instinct of religious Separa-
tism was irrepressible, and after the meeting of the Long
Parliament the practice of Separatism had been openly re-
vived. As that event had been a signal to the Puritan exiles
in Holland and New England that they might return, so it
was construed into a proclamation that the long-suppressed
Separatists at home might come out of their hiding-holes.
Thus, in London and its suburbs, where in the previous year
the i mly congregation of Separatists distinctly recorded as
existing was Mr. Henry Jessey's, there sprang up in loll,
unless l'>isho]> Hall was misinformed, " no fewer than four-
" score congregations of several Sectaries, instructed by guides
"fit for them, eol.l.lers, t;iil<»rs. frit makers, and suoh-like
1 1 Of one of these conventicles there is a story in the
.Journals under dates Jan. 16 and Jan. 18, 1640-1, or
within eleven w.-.-l^ after the opening of the Parliament. On
the first of these days there were brought before the House,
by his Majesty's command, six villains, named Kdmund
Chillendon. Nicholas Tvne. .Inlm Webb, Thomas (limn.
' Palfrey, I. 582-687.
« Speech of fib)...,, Hall in the Lord- ll.!*0.
588 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Joseph Ellis, and Eichard Sturges, who had all been seized,
on the previous Sunday, by the constables and churchwardens
of St. Saviour's, Southwark, in the house of the last-named
Sturges, " where they said they met to teach and edify one
another in Christ " ; and on the second of these days they
were discharged by the Lords with a solemn admonition not
to do the like again. There are private accounts, however,
of the same incident. From these it seems that the persons
arrested were really a fragment of a stubborn Independent
congregation that had been meeting, no one knew for how
long, in Deadman's Place, Southwark, with a Mr. Stephen
More for their pastor, and also that the solemn admonition
in the Lords Journals was all but a farce. For, while the
admonition was being given, or was in preparation, some of
the Peers, these private accounts tell us, quietly asked the
culprits where they were to meet next Sunday ; and actually
three or four of the Peers went next Sunday to their meeting,
heard two sermons, saw them receive the Lord's Supper, and,
after contributing handsomely to a collection for the poor,
professed themselves much pleased, and said they would
come again. They never did ; but what of that ? Was it
not clear that, whatever Parliament might find it necessary
to say publicly, they were not in a mood for severe coercion ? l
Where the practice of Independency existed to such an extent,
theorists for Independency were sure to be forthcoming.
In the winter of 1640-1 there were at least two persons
in London ready to raise the flag of English Independency
without aid from Holland or America. These were Henry
Burton and John Lilburne, known to us hitherto as, with
Prynne, Bastwick, and Dr. Leighton, the prime personal
sufferers under Laud's rule. As soon as the Long Parliament
met, had it not hastened, amid the applauses of all England,
to release those five from their several prisons with special
honours, and to make some atonement to them for their past
tortures ? Strange that, from the moment of their restoration
to society, these associates in misfortune should be found part-
ing company ! Yet such is the fact. Prynne and Bastwick
1 Lords Journals of dates cited, and Hanbury's Memorials, II. 66 — 68.
REINVIGORATION OF INDEPENDENCY, 1640-43.
were to become strenuous advocates of strict Presbyterianism,
while liurton and lilburne were to be voices for Separatism
and extreme Independency. In Burton's various Anti-Prelatic
writings before his dreadful punishment in 1637, the Anti-
Prelacy had been distinctly of the Brownist or Separatist
«<»rt ; and so, when he came back among his parishioners in
Friday Street, in March 1640-1, a sad, emaciated creature,
of more than sixty, with the scars of his lost ears -concealed
by his skull-cap, it was something beyond Presbyterianism
that might be expected in his sermons. Lilburne, not yet
more than twenty-two years of age, but the most bull-headed
young obstinate that ever came from the county of Durham,
had been Prynne's law-clerk, and the offence for which he
had been whipped, pilloried, and imprisoned, in 163 8, was that
of distributing his master's pamphlets. In prison, however,
Lilburne had been thinking for himself; and here was one of
the results : " Come Out of Her, My People : or an Answer to the
Questions of a Gentlewoman, a professor in the Anti-Christian
Church of England, about Hearing tlie public Ministers ; where
it is largely discussed, and proved to be unlawful. Also a Just .
Apology for tlw way of Total Separation, commonly but falsely
called ' Brovmism ' ; that it is the truth of God, though lightly
esteemed in the eyes of the world. With a challenge to dispute
them publicly before King and Council, to prove whatsoever I
have said at the pillory against them : viz. that the calling of
them is jure Diaboli, even from the Devil himself. By me,
John Lilburne, close Prisoner in the Fleet for the cause of Christ.
Printed in the year of hope of England's Purgation and the
Prelates' Dissolution. Anno 1639."
Still it cannot be said that before the middle of 1641
the indigenous Independency of England made any great
show. The abundant Anti-Prelatic pamphleteering and con-
sultation of the first eight months of the Long Parliament
was, mostly, of a general nature. It was directed to the
abolition of Episcopacy and the accomplishment of some
kiml of Root-and-Branch Reform of the Church, but will K.I it
any precise specification of the mechanism desirable in the
church as it should be reformed. The war against the
590 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Church of England, one may say, was mainly after the
manner of the siege of Jericho in Scripture. "Ye shall
" compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about
" the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven
" priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams'
" horns ; and the seventh day ye shall compass the city
" seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
" And it? shall come to pass, that when they make a long
" blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound
" of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great
" shout ; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and
" the people shall ascend up, every man straight before
" him" (Joshua vi. 3 — 5). Milton's first three Anti-Episcopal
pamphlets, for example, written between April and July
1641, are characteristic in this respect. They are shoutings
of a layman expecting the fall of the besieged Jericho, but
with no more definite preadvertisement of the policy that
should follow the fall than was implied in the fact that
the priests who were loudest in blowing the rams' horns for
the surrender were Milton's five Presbyterian friends, the
Smectymnuans. Milton had not then discussed with himself
the claims' of the two competing Anti-Prelatic theories of
Presbyterianism and Independency. More remarkable still
is a confession of Richard Baxter, who was twenty-five
years of age in 1641, and then a Puritan minister at Kid-
derminster. He confesses that till that year he had " never
" thought what Presbytery or Independency was, nor ever
" spake with a man who seemed to know it." l Baxter and
his acquaintances were, certainly, more in the dark than
they ought to have been ; and there were others who had
the whole prior history of the dispute between Presby-
tery and Independency at their fingers' ends. Still, his
testimony is valuable as proving that till the middle of
1641 indiscriminate An ti- Prelacy was the prevailing
mood of the English mind, and the distinction between
Presbyterianism and Independency was yet caviare to the
general.
1 Baxter's True Hist, of Councils Enlarged, as quoted in Hanbury, II. 69.
KKINVKIOKATIMN «>K INI >KI'K.\ I >KN« V, 1640-43. 591
What rectified this ? What first made the Presbyterians
in Kngland, and their advisers the Scots, aware that there
might be. some obstacles to that triumphant establishment
iict Presbytery iu England to which they were looking
forward ? In the first place, the return from Holland of
Messrs. Goodwin, Nye, Bridge, Burroughs, and Simpson ! As
early as March 1640-1, we find Uaillie, and his colleagues
of the Scottish deputation then in London, somewhat dis-
composed by the arrival of those five. They found them
excellent men, likeable for many things, and especially for
their declarations in conversation that they had as little
sympathy with extreme Separatists and mere sectarian
lil'n -k heads as the English Presbyterians or the Scots had;
but still there was a possibility of trouble from their own
regationalist scruples.1 Next, however, there came a
bomb from Burton. The reader may remember the Protesta-
tion, or Resolution for the Common Safety, adopted with such
enthusiasm by the two Houses of Parliament, and circulated
by them among the people at large for signature, in the crisis
of alarm occasioned by the Army Plot in May 1641 (ante,
pp. 186-7). Well, seizing on the words of this Protestation
by which those that signed it swore to maintain " the true
" Reformed Religion expressed in the doctrine of the Church
" of England," Burton sent forth, anonymously, from his
study in Friday Street, a tract of twenty-one pages, entitled
" The Protestation Protested : or A Short Remonstrance, show-
ing what is princij;"/!?/ squired of all those that have or do
take the last Parliamentary Protestation'1 The tenor of this
tract may be conceived. Hurt mi wanted to know precisely
what \\.i- ni'-aiit in the phrase of the Protestation that has
heen quoted, and pointed out its perplexing ambiguity to
Puritan cunsei.-nco in such matters as the liturgy, discipline,
and ceremonies. So far lie had a following amon^ th»-
Presbyterians, who indeed made the same complaint about
tlit- Pint. -Malion, and obtained from Parliament a sat is!'..
• •xplanatioii ••!' it. But tin- end "I P.urt"n's tract was a
Ma/.- of peeuliar or IJurtoniaii Independency. "A particular
» Baillie. 1.311.
592 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
" church, or congregation, rightly collected and constituted,
" consists," he said, " of none but such as are visible living
" members of Christ the Head, and visible saints under Him,
" the one and only King of Saints ; but so is it not with a
" National Church." " Let it be the first degree of Kefor-
" mation," he said, " to begin and call forth all those unto
" several congregations who are fitted and who desire to
" draw near to Christ in a holy communion." " If a State,"
" he said, " will set up a National Church, wherein many
" things, out of reason of State, are tolerated, and pre-
" scribed for ' order sake/ as they call it, and if there be
" such a necessity, necessity hath no law ; but let not this
" exclude and bar out the free use of such congregations
" whereof the spiritual commonwealth of Israel consisteth."
" If Christians living in a parish," he said, " shall find just
" cause of separating themselves . . . shall any ministers be
" so unchristian as to envy this ? " " As for the manner of
" government of a National Church," he said, "because it hath
" no pattern in the Scripture now under the Gospel, who can
" herein prescribe or advise anything ? Let it be what it will,
" so as still a due respect be had to those congregations and
" churches which desire an exemption." These sentences give
the pith of Burton's views. In other words, he had such strong
objections to a National Church of any kind that he did not
care to inquire what kind might be best ; but if, on grounds
of political expediency, it should appear inevitable that a
National Church should be set up, with a division of the land
into parishes, and a minister of the National Church in every
parish .paid by the State, at least let there be a liberty of
dissent, and of separate congregational organization to dis-
senters at their own expense I1 There is proof that Burton's
tract was much read, and made a powerful impression. Par-
liament itself took notice of it by imprisoning the printer for
six weeks (July 1 0 — Aug. 2 5)2 ; and there is reason to believe
1 Ample extracts from Burton's pendents and their opponents, with
Tract are given in Hanbury's Me- much criticism, and a slight thread of
morials of Independency, 11. 69 — 77. connecting narrative.
This work, indeed, consists of masses 2 Commons Journals, July 10, 24-5,
of verbatim extracts from the whole 1641.
series of tracts by early English Inde-
KKIXVIGORATION OF INDEPENDENCY, 1640-43.
that tin- Presbyterian ministers of London had it in view,
as well as the mildrr Independency of the five returned
ministers from Holland, when they wrote to the General
Assembly of the Scottish Kirk at its meeting that autumn,
requesting a distinct opinion from that venerable body on
the lawfulness of Congregationalism in any form or degree.
What the answer of the Scottish Kirk was we saw some time
ago (ante, pp. 288—290). Just when the talk of the re-
turned Anglo-Dutch Congregationalists had sufficiently ven-
tilated the question of a mild Congregationalism, and Burton's
tract had sent a blaze of more startling Brownism through
the air, there arrived Hugh Peters, Thomas Welde, and
others, as the accredited ambassadors of the Independency of
New England. This thickened the controversy ; and,
accordingly, through the rest of 1641, there is evidence of
a growing fear, on the part of the English Presbyterians, of
the chances of some success for " Congregationalism," or
" Brownism," or " the New England way." Presbyterianism
availed itself of all its existing resources of reply, and set
new pens to work Treatises by Paget of Amsterdam and
other Anglo -Dutch Presbyterians were imported; and a
good deal was done by circulating and re-editing certain
treatises of a John Ball, a poor Staffordshire curate and
Nonconformist, who had died in 1640 little heard of, but
whose studies of the question of Separatism had been rather
extensive. In particular, an answer of Ball's to two books
of John Canne, the Amsterdam Brownist, was edited and
published by Simeon Ashe, with a prefatory epistle by Ashe
and four other Presbyterian Divines.1 To Burton's Protesta-
tion Protested there were, of course, special answers.
Besides a furious one in the Prelatic interest, publi-lud
anonymously, but attributed, on the evidence of the style,
to Bishop Hall, there was one in the Presbytx-iian interest
by John (Iciee, M.A., preacher at Tewkesbury. But of all
the Pro-Presbytery and Anti-Independency publicatioi
the hour the most noteworthy, both for a certain fluent
sj.iritcdness or animosity in the writing ii -••!!', and ln-cause
» Wood'* Athon», II. 670-673.
VOL. ii -' q
594 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
of the subsequent notoriety of the writer, was one of 56
quarto pages, entitled, "Reasons against the Independent
Government of particular Congregations : As also against the
Toleration of such Churches to be erected in this Kingdom :
Together with an Answer to such Reasons as are commonly
alleged for such a Toleration : Presented, in all humility, to
the Honourable House of Commons now assembled in
Parliament, by Tho : Edwards, Minister of the Gospel. 1641."
Let the reader put his mark upon this Thomas Edwards.
He had been educated at Cambridge, and had graduated
M. A. there in 1609; had been incorporated in the same
degree at Oxford in 1623; and had been a Nonconformist
lecturer in Hertfordshire and other midland counties, and
also in London. And now in 1641, when he was between
fifty and sixty years of age, he flashed out in this pamphlet.
" Considering," he says in his Introduction, " how many are
" of that [the Independent] way, some inhabiting in this
" kingdom, others who are come over into England on pur-
" pose, being sent as messengers of their Churches to
" negotiate on that behalf; and observing how diligently
" and close they follow it, by daily attending at West-
" minster, by insinuating themselves into the company of
" sundry members of the House of Commons, by preaching
" often in Westminster, the more to ingratiate themselves
" and their cause ; printing also their desire of a Toleration
" for Independent Government, and that with casting of dirt
" upon the reformation and government of this National
" Church, whatever it may be, — as witness The Protestation
11 Protested : I, a minister of the Gospel, and a sufferer for it
" these many years past .... have thought it my duty . , .
" to print these Eeasons at this time, that so, when any
" of these Petitions come to be propounded in the House of
" Commons, under specious pretences and fair pretexts, there
" may by these Eeasons appear a snake under the green grass."
With the same spirited verbosity he goes on to predict all
kinds of horrors from Independency, or the least toleration
of it in England. His pamphlet appears to have circulated
widely, and to have been particularly stinging to the Inde-
pendents. At all events, among the replies from that side to
KKINVIGORATION OF INDEPENDENCY, 1640-43.
595
tli.- Presbyterian attacks n«w 1 Binning to be numerous, Mr.
Edwards was honoured with one all to himself. What Mr.
Edwards, however, did not like, for it set society on the grin,
was that his antagonist was a woman. " TJie Justification
nf the, Independent Churches of Christ : being an Answer to
Mr. Edwards his Book, which he hath written against the
Government of Christ's Church, and Toleration of Christ's
public Worship ; briefly declaring that the Congregations of
the Saints ought not to have Dependency in government upon
any other, or direction in worship from any other, than
Christ, their Head and Lawgiver. By Katherine Chidley.
1641." Such was the title of the Reply, of 81 pages, that
astonished Mr. Edwards. People wondered who this she-
Brownist, Katherine Chidley, was, and did not quite lose their
interest in her when they found that she was an oldish
woman, and a member of some hole-and-corner congregation
in London. Indeed she put her nails into Mr. Edwards with
some effect. In the close of her pamphlet she offers to have
the argument out with him, if he chooses, in a debate before
a jury of listeners impartially selected. " If you overcome
" me," she adds, rather unfairly, " your conquest will not be
" great, for I am a poor woman, and unmeet to deal with
" you." Mr. Edwards did not accept the proposal ; but
Mrs. Chidley's pamphlet left him fuming, and we shall see
he kept her in mind.1
And so we are brought to the year 1642. In that year
the difference between Presbyterian ism and Independency
was no longer a mystery in England. Ball's tracts on tin-
one side, and Bui-tun's I ' rotestation Protested on the other, had
wakened Baxter on the subject. There is proof that Mil tun
ii ad read the Protestation Protested, and the reply to it
whirl i was suspected to be Bishop Hall's;2 and it is observable
1 Hanbury's Memorial*, II. 77-117 .
where there are abridgments of tho
ii j.ainphluta named, with
batim extract*,
No more but of one [libellous
"pamphlet f P. 1 1 lean
! I i ] rv
mber ! What if I put him in min-l
>ne more? What more
t tho Remonstrant in many
•likelihoods may be thought UM
'author' l>'l hi- nover see a pamphlet
' entitled. after his <.\vn fashi"ii, A Sur-
><•:" • Libel, • 77. Protatat Pro
'tfjttfii'? Tho child doth n<>t n
1 prewly refljfure therwageof hih fat In r
it book resemble* tho style of
596 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
that the fourth of Milton's Anti-Episcopal tracts, The Reason of
Church Government, published in January or February 1641-2,
is not, like its predecessors, a mere argument for the destruc-
tion of Prelacy, but is an express discussion of the farther
question of the form of Church Government to be substituted
for Prelacy. That pamphlet, as we saw, may be classed as,
in the main, a Presbyterian pamphlet, as if Milton, when he
wrote it, were still in sympathy with his Smectymnuan
friends and the Presbyterian party generally ; but a certain
vague melting towards Independency may be discerned in the
language throughout. It is the parochial consistory, or court
of each individual parochial congregation, consisting of the
pastor, lay-elders, and deacons, acting for and even in consulta-
tion with the entire body of the members, that Milton
dwells on ; it is this that he thinks of and describes as the
essential atom of the Presbytery he contends for ; and, though
he does have in view the consociation or " conglobing " of the
parochial or congregational Presbyteries over a whole land
by a gradation of larger consistories, or at least by occasional
national assemblies, he is hazy in this part of the scheme,
and still seems to leave to every congregation within itself
the real power of Church censure. In this, as well as in his
obvious indifference in the same pamphlet to the alarms of
his stricter contemporaries about Brownism, Anabaptism, and
the increase of sects, one traces the effects of his recent
readings of tracts from the Independent side, though these
had not wholly won him over. Nor is there much difference,
I think, between Milton's mood so expressed and the mood of
Lord Brooke in his famous Discourse on Episcopacy, or of
Lord Saye and Sele in his Parliamentary speeches at the
same date. The Separatists found far kindlier judges and
interpreters in these Lords than among the Presbyterians.
In short, in 1642, though Presbyterianism in England was
enormously in the ascendant, though an overwhelming
majority of the Parliamentarians throughout the country,
and of their exponents in Parliament, had made up their
"the Remonstrant in those idioms of "light." — Milton's Apology for Smec-
" speech wherein he seems most to de- tymnuus.
KKINVIGORATIOX OP INDEPENDENCY, 1640-43. 597
minds for the establishment of a Presbyterian Church in Eng-
land as near as might be to the Scottish pattern, though
the citizens of London in the mass were passionately Pres-
byterian, and there were but two or three out of all the
120 parish-ministers of the city suspected of Independency,
yet the existence of a certain amount of opinion in
favour of Independency, and consequently of a demand
for some toleration for Independency in the system to
be established, was no longer dubious. From this year
too we may reckon the permanent acceptance of the name
Independency as designating the thing. The term had been
in occasional use among the Independents themselves for
thirty years, and indeed was a very natural growth out of
the phrases " mutual independency of particular churches,"
" independency of particular churches on any superior or
synodical authority," which they had so often to employ in
explaining their system. Hence, in recent pamphlets on
both sides, a tendency to concurrence in this name, though
Brownism, Separatism, and the like, remained convenient
synonyms for those who wanted words of opprobrium. Now,
however, Independency became the generic name, or name
in chief, and there was some recognition of the shades and
degrees of opinion which that one name might include.
Perhaps the most frequent name for the middle or moderate
kind of Independency, — and it was with this that the Pres-
byterians foresaw their chief battle would be, — was " the
New Ki inland way." For there was now more and more
a perception of the power possessed by Independency in
tin- fjict that it was the established Church polity already of
an Knglish population of 22,000 or 23,000 souls, with some
seventy or eighty ministers among them, of Cambridge and
( )\tni,l training, across the Atlantic. Far off as this popu-
lation was, Belf-organized and self-governed as it was, it was
still a jM.rti..n of the realm of England. Nay, was it not
clear that this population had not abnegated its interest in
the Church concerns of En -land, l.ut was trying to act in
those concerns by correspondence and through emissaries ?
Tlii< liad l.r.-n visible since the arrival of Messrs. Peters
598
LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
and Welde in the preceding year; but throughout 1642 it
became more and more apparent. The letter-writing and
the coming and going between England and New England
were brisk through all that year ; and before the end of it
the New England Church had spoken out her sentiments,
in what might be called an authoritative manner, through
the most eminent of all her ministers, Mr. John Cotton of
Boston. " The True Constitution of a Particular Visible
Church proved ly Scripture " was the title of a treatise sent
over by Cotton, and published with his name in London,
in 1642. It was much read, and it passed into a second
edition, with a changed title, within a year ; and Cotton
became from that moment the exponent of moderate
Independency whom the Presbyterians felt themselves most
bound to answer.1
An important change in the political system of the New
England colonies was accomplished in May 1643, only a
week or two before the convention of the Westminster
Assembly. This event, the news of which must have
reached England just as the Assembly was beginning its
work, does not seem to have excited much attention. Yet
not only was it the first step towards the formation of the
future Eepublic of the United States, but even on the
English Church questions which the Westminster Assembly
had been called to debate it was not to be without some
immediate bearing.
The sudden stoppage of the immigration from England, and
the commencement even of a return-wave, had strengthened
in the New Englanders the sense that they were in fact a
distinct commonwealth, depending on themselves for their
future, and bound to look after that future by wise pro-
visions. They were more dispersed along the coast-line than
they had originally intended; they had had troublesome wars
1 Hanbury's Memorials, II. 117—166.
bletcher (Hist, of Independency, III.
34) finds the first distinct use of the
term Independent in its ecclesiastical
sense in a tract of Henry Jacob, pub-
lished in 1612 ; but it seems to me
likely that a search among the writings
of Robinson and the other early Anglo-
Dutch Independents would detect
earlier, or contemporary, instances.
Hanbury (II. 49) shows that the name
Independency had certainly not become
general in 1640.
RKINVIGORATION OF INDEPENDENCY, 1640-43. 599
with the Indians, and they were sure to have more of the
samr; there were French settlements to the north-east of
tin-in, and Dutch and Swedish to the south-west, with some
of which, or with all together, there might be complications.
Knjund was distant and engrossed in her own civil strife:
what security was there unless in some political union of all
the parts of New England among themselves ? Hence, after
much negotiation, a formal agreement at Boston (May 19,
1643) in a body of Articles, establishing a CONFEDERACY OF
THI FOUR COLONIES OF PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS, CON-
NECTICUT, AND NEW HAVEN, under the name of THE UNITED
COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND, and settling the Constitution of
that Confederacy. Its executive for all the purposes of the
confederacy, as distinct from the independent governments
<>t the colonies severally, was to consist of a Court of eight
( 'nmmissioners, two from each colony and duly qualified by
church-membership in that colony. This Court, with one of
its own body elected by itself as President, was to meet once
a year, or oftener, as might be required, in some principal
tn\vn of the colonies in succession, but with a preference
of frequency to Boston. The first Commissioners, elected
in 1643, were Edward Winslow and William Collier for
Plymouth, John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley for Massa-
chusetts, George Fenwick and Edward Hopkins for Con-
necticut, and Theophilus Eaton and Thomas Gregson fm-
New Haven ; and, by their election, Winthrop was called
t" the first Presidency.1
Of course, this bold union of the Colonies among them-
selves was liable to be questioned by the Crown and Parlia-
iii. nt of England; and, to justify and explain 'it, there had
to be a new despatch of accredited agents to London. Not
as one of these, but on an errand of his own, connected with
theirs and yet a little in conflict with it at first, there came
over one more American, whose return, though it was to lx»
I. ut t'nr a temporary visit, deserves particular notice.
The reader remembers our distinction between the F«mr
< '"l«nies and certain outlying I'lant.itinns <>n their bnnli-rs.
i Pttlfrey, I. 623-634, and II.
600 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Well, of those outlying Plantations only one patch came
within the new Confederacy, — that patch of the present New
Hampshire where there were the rising towns of Exeter,
Dover, &c. The inhabitants of those settlements had re-
cently attached themselves to Massachusetts, and came into
the Confederacy as part of that colony. But there remained
positively excluded from the Confederacy the Plantations
farther to the north-east, in what is now the State of
Maine, and also the Plantations south-west of Massachusetts
and Plymouth, in the Narraganset Bay country, interposed
between these colonies and Connecticut and New Haven.
Their exclusion was deliberate. The Confederate New
Englanders looked askance upon those Plantations, as
running a different course from themselves " both in their
O
ministry and civil administration," and hoped either to tame
them into conformity by refusing to traffic with them, or to
bring them into submission by actual force. The complaint
against the Maine people was partly that there was a Eoyalist
and Prelatic leaven among them, and partly that they had
given refuge to heretical Separatists like Wheelwright and
Hanserd Knollys. The complaint against the Narraganset Bay
people was even more indignant. There, in Portsmouth and
Newport, the two towns of Aquetnet or Ehode Island, were
the wrecks of the dispersed Antinomians or Hutchinsonians
of Boston, increased by other restless recruits, and struggling
hard with their own dissensions. There, at the head of the
Bay, close to this two-towned chaos of Ehode Island, which
he had himself induced thither, but with his own little chaos
of Providence immediately around him, was the arch-Indi-
vidualist, Eoger Williams. He was the most lovable of men,
certainly ; he and the good and orderly Winthrop of Massa-
chusetts could not but like each other, and kept up a friendly
correspondence, despite their differences ; and he had been of
excellent service to the colonies, hard as had been their treat-
ment of him, by his generous and laborious negotiations for
them, more than once, with his pets the Indians. Still what
an experiment he was bent on, — that of the organization of a
community on the unheard-of principle of absolute religious
ROOEK \VII I.IAMS IN ENGLAND. 001
lilx -i t y combined with perfect civil democracy ! Organize ?
Williams and organization were a contradiction in terms.
What had he had about him in Providence but turmoil from
the first, — a turmoil lately quite maddening, even to Williams
himself, from the vagaries of a certain Samuel Gorton ? This
Gorton, originally a clothier or tailor in London, then one of the
Boston Ant inomians, then a trouble in New Plymouth till they
luiiiished him, then a torture even to the Rhode Islanders till
they publicly whipped him, had at length flung himself upon
Providence and the neck of Roger Williams. It was a sore
trial for that arch-libertarian. " Master Gorton, having foully
abused high and low at Aquetnet," wrote Williams to Win-
throp, Mar. 8, 1 641-2," is now bewitching and bemadding poor
Providence." Some of the Providence people even appealed to
Massachusetts, desiring to be taken into the protection of that
colony, so as to be under some sort of effective government,
and delivered from Williams and his principle of Liberty.
Massachusetts liked the proposal, and began to stir in it. But
Williams had faith in his principle ; a sufficient number both
of the Providence people and of the Rhode Islanders had
faith in it ; and in 1 643 it was resolved to send over Williams
himself to England, to represent their case to the King and
I 'ail lament, and endeavour to procure a charter uniting all the
Narraganset Bay settlements into an independent colony. As
Williams <-«>ul<l not safely embark from a New England port,
he went to wait for a ship in the Dutch possessions, south-
west from New Haven. Here he found Mrs. Hutchinson and
IHT family, who had just migrated from Rhode Island for
ni" iv freedom or better living among the Dutch. Here also
he was of use to the Dutch as a peacemaker between them
ami th«- Indian tribes of their neighbourhood. At length, in
.hint- 164 3, he sailed from New Amsterdam, now New York, in
a I>iu< -h ship, humid fur Kngland. It is a pity he could not
have taken poor Mrs. Hut* hinson and her family with him.
In tin- voyage he amused himself with writing a " Key to tlic
Language of America, or an Help to the Language of the
Natives in that part of America called New England, togetJier
with brief observations of the Customs, Manners, and Worxii //>x
602 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
of the Natives" When he reached England, they were lament-
ing the death of Hampden. Vane, however, was Williams's
chief personal friend in England, the man to whom he and
his constituents looked for most aid in the business that had
brought him over. He remained in England about a year, or
till Sept. 1644, and during much of that time he was Vane's
guest.1
PRESBYTERIANISM AND INDEPENDENCY IN JULY 1643 : THEIR
PROSPECTS IN THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.
I regard the arrival of Eoger Williams in London about
Midsummer 1643 as the importation into England of the
very quintessence or last distillation of that notion of Church
Independency which England had originated, but Holland
and America had worked out. Our history of Independency
in all its forms, on to this quintessence or last distillation of
it in the mind of a fervid Welsh New-Englander, who might
now be seen, alone or in young Vane's company, hanging
about the lobbies of the Houses of Parliament and the West-
minster Assembly, has not been without preconceived and
deliberate purpose. For, in most of our existing studies and
accounts of England's great Revolution in the middle of the
seventeenth century, I know not a blunder more fatal, more
full of causes of misapprehension and unfair judgment, than
that which consists in treating Independency as a sudden
new phenomenon of 1643, or thereabouts, when the West-
minster Assembly met. Not so, as we have seen. For sixty
years before 1643 Independency had been a traditional form
of Anti-Prelacy in the English popular mind, competing with
the somewhat older Anti-Prelatic theory of Presbyterianism,
and, though not possessing the same respectability of num-
bers and of social weight, yet lodged inexpugnably in native
depths, and intense with memories of pain and wrong. It
did happen, in 1643, when Prelacy was removed from the
1 Palfrey, I. 606-9, and II. 116-123 ; the Hanserd Knollys Society's reprint
Gammell's Life of Roger Williams, pp. of the Eloudy Tenent of Persecution
105-119 ; and Memoir of Williams by [1848]
Edward Bean Underbill, prefixed to
PARTIES IN THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 603
nation, and the question was what was to be substituted, that
tliis native tradition of Independency found itself dashed
ist the other tradition of Presbyteriauism, in such con-
ditions that Independency seemed the pretender and upstart,
while Presbyterianism seemed the rightful heir. This arose
partly from the fact that Presbyterianism had mass and
respectability in her favour, was at home on the spot, and
had her titles ready, whereas Independency had been a
wanderer on the Continent and in the Colonies, had con-
tracted an uncouth and sunburnt look, had been preceded
by ugly reports of her behaviour in foreign parts, had
changed her name several times, and was not at once pre-
pared with her pedigree and vouchers. Partly, however, it
arose from the omnipotence at that moment of Scottish
example and advice in England. Anyhow, for the moment,
Independency was at a disadvantage. She seemed even to
doubt her chance of obtaining a hearing. Nevertheless, she
was to be heard, and fully, in the course of time. Not a
form of Independency, not a variety in her development
that has been descril>ed in the preceding narrative, from
Brown's original English Separatism, on through Robinson's
( iongregationaliain or Semi-Separatism antagonizing Smyth's
extreme Separatism and Se-Baptism in Holland, and so to
the consolidated Robinsonian Independency of the New
Knjland Church, with its outjets in Mrs. Hutchinson's Anti-
iioiniaiiism and Roger Williains's absolute Individualism, but
were to have their appearances or equivalents in the coming
enntroversy in England, and to play into the current of
Kmdish lit.-.
Tin- medium through which this Independency, and what-
e\er it invnhed, had to assert themselves and press for a
hearing was, first of all, the Westminster Assembly. An
important inquiry therel'me is, How did the Assembly, in
respect of its composition at the time of its first meeting,
stan.l i. -lat. •• I l.< -inn-hand to the controversy between Pres-
byterianism and Independency?
hia-mueh a> the Assembly was a creation of the Parlia
Hiellt at a time when the n;itinn Was divided hetWeell Parlia-
604 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
ment and the King, it could not possibly be pan- Anglican.
It could not be a representation of all the varieties of eccle-
siastical opinion existing in England, but only of such as
would consent for the time to obey the Parliamentary sum-
mons, and show themselves within the Parliamentary quarters.
Within this limit, however, there was an effort on the
part of Parliament, in its first convention of the Assembly,
to make it rather composite. Of the 119 Divines originally
summoned to the Assembly, about a dozen at least, with
Usher and two English Bishops at their head, were " men of
Episcopal persuasion," favourers of Prelacy and a Liturgy.
By the refusal, however, of most of these to appear in the
Assembly at all, and the dropping off at once of the two or
three who did appear, the Assembly from the outset was
able to stand on what was, after all, the real principle and
intention of its constitution, its very raison d'dtre. It pre-
sented itself as an avowedly Anti-Prelatic Council, in which
the extinction of Prelacy was a unanimous foregone conclu-
sion, and whose discussions were to start from that point.
Well, when the few Prelatists had dropped off, and the
Assembly had assumed its proper Anti-Prelatic character, how
did it stand in respect of the two forms of Anti-Prelacy that
were competing for the succession ? — I. THE PRESBYTERIANS
IN THE ASSEMBLY. These were overwhelmingly in the
majority. It might be unfair to say that the Assembly
was packed with Presbyterians ; for perhaps the Parliament
did not in tend any such packing, but had really made the
most suitable selection in its power from the most popular
Puritan divines it could hear of all over England, at the rate
of two from each county. The phrase, however, suggests the
reality ; for the most eminent Puritan divines at hand, within
hail of the Parliament, were of that moderate Nonconformist
stamp which had managed with more or less difficulty to
subsist in England through Laud's rule; i.e. they were
Presbyterians, as distinct from Separatists. If 105 Divines
remained nominally on the lists of the Assembly after the
few Prelatists had withdrawn, then 100 of these were Presby-
terians. Dr. Twisse, the Prolocutor of the Assembly, was a
PARTIES IN THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 605
Presbyterian; the five Smectymnuans (Marshall, Gala my,
Young, Newcomen, and Spurstow) were all in the Assembly ;
and among the other most active Presbyterians in it were
Arrowsmith, Burges, Caryl, Cheynel, Conant, Gataker,
Gouge, Harris, Herle, Hill, Hodges, Palmer, Reynolds, Sedg-
wick, Staunton, Tuckney, Vines, White, and Whi taker. -
II. INDEPENDENTS IN THE ASSEMBLY. There had been a
private effort to secure some efficient representation of
Independency in the Assembly thus dense with Presby-
terians. In September 1642, a letter, signed by five Peers
and thirty-four other persons (among whom were Oliver
Cromwell, Arthur Haselrig, and Nathaniel Fiennes), had
been sent to New England, earnestly requesting that Mr.
Cotton of Boston, Mr. Hooker of Hartford, and Mr. Daven-
port of New Haven, would come over to assist in " the
settling and composing the affairs of the Church." Daven-
port would have gone, but could not obtain leave from his
congregation ; Hooker " liked not the business, nor thought
it any sufficient call for them to go three thousand miles " ;
Cotton would not go alone. When, therefore, the West-
minster Assembly was constituted, all that could be managed
by those in Parliament who were interested was to procure
the return to the Assembly of the five English Congrega-
tionalist ministers who had recently returned from Holland :
vi/. Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye, William Bridge, Jeremiah
Burroughs, and Sidrach Simpson. These five, the most mild
and moderate of all to whom the name of " Independent "
could be applied, the least removed from the Presbyterians,
were the sole wedge of Independency among the divines
of the Assembly at its outset. Their views were favoured,
however, by some of the lay members, including Viscount
Saye and Sele and Sir Harry Vane.1
One observation more on the composition of (he Assembly :
— A few of the members, whether 1'ic.sl.ytciianor IiidrjM-inl.'Mt
in the main matter, came to be distinguished by a collective
in.lji -aiini; that they wore their colours, whether of
'. Hi.st. III. JI(J-7, «uti,n: liaillie. II. 110; Neal's Pun-
foot'* and (Jillespio'H tans. Ill 130 1 :::.. .».! 258 el tea.;
Note0 of the Wertminater Assembly, 1'alfroy'a Now England, I. 581-2.
606 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
Presbyterianism or of Independency, with a difference from
the rest. They were called THE ERASTIANS, from a notion
that they held views of the relations between Church and
State like those which had been propounded by the Swiss-
German theologian and physician Erastus (1 524 — 1 583), and
maintained, after him, by some of the more eminent of the
English Eeformers. The essence of Erastianisin, or what had
come to be called Erastianism, was that all power of discipline,
ecclesiastical as well as civil, belongs ultimately to the State, the
Church not being independent of the State by Divine constitu-
tion as an imperium in imperio, but being only the ecclesiastical
department of the State's service, or the State itself acting
ecclesiastically. Hence the office of pastor or minister in a
congregation was not to be regarded as essentially coercive
or judicial, but only as instructive or persuasive, like that of
a professor among his pupils, and the right of excommunica-
tion, suspension from church -member ship, or other so-called
spiritual penalty, did not belong to the Church in herself,
but only by deputation from the State, and subject to revision
by the State. One can see how any one in the Westminster
Assembly holding such views, or any modification of them,
would inevitably, whether a Presbyterian or an Independent
in the main, be led into eccentric positions. Accordingly the
little band of Erastians in the Assembly are seen zigzagging
across the line of main division and causing complications of
the main controversy. Among the divines of the Assembly
there seem to have been but two avowed Erastians : viz. Dr.
Lightfoot and Mr. Coleman, both of them Rabbinists and
Orientalists, and both belonging on the whole to the Presby-
terian majority ; but Erastianism had its adherents among
the lay-members, and especially among the lawyers. Bulstrode
Whitlocke and Oliver St. John were of the number ; but
Selden was the chief. The position of this great scholar and
wit in the Assembly was, indeed, altogether peculiar. For
a long while he took a delight in attending the meetings of
the Assembly, and joining in the debates, but mainly for
the purpose of seeing fair play, or rather of perplexing the
divines equally all round by his subtlety and learning.
PARTIES IN THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 607
" Sometimes, when they had cited a text of Scripture to
" prove their assertion," says his friend and fellow-member,
Whitlocke, " he would tell them, ' Perhaps in your little
" pocket Bibles with gilt leaves ' (which they would often
" pull out and read) ' the translation may be thus, but the
" Greek or the Hebrew signifies thus and thus ' ; and so would
" totally rout them." There may be a little mischief in this
memorandum of Whitlocke, for there were good Hellenists
and Hebraists in the Assembly besides Selden ; but it is in
the main accurate. Fuller's account is to the same effect.
Among the difficulties of the Assembly he specially mentions
what was complained of in Selden : to wit, " that, advantaged
" by his skill in antiquity, common law, and the Oriental
" tongues, he employed them rather to pose than profit,
" perplex than inform, the members thereof." And Fuller,
as usual, shows that he understood the man. " This great
" scholar," he adds, " not overloving of any clergymen, and
" least of those, delighted himself in raising of scruples
44 for the vexing of others ; and some stick not to say
" that those who will not feed on the flesh of God's
" Word cast most bones to others, to break their teeth
" therewith." This is slyly expressed, but it depicts Selden
to the life. It was not because he was fond of the soft
or nutritive parts of Scripture himself that he called
the attention of others chiefly to the hard parts or bones.
He was at heart a kind of Latitudinarian or Freethinker.
Above all, he was a clergy-hater. " The clergy and the
1 laity together," he said in one of his morsels of table-talk,
11 are never likely to do well. It is as if a man were to
44 make an excellent feast, and should have his apothecary
" and his physician to come to his kitchen : the cooks, if
" they were let alone, would make excellent meat ; but then
< "Mies the apothecary, and he puts rhubarb into one sauce,
44 and agaric into another. Chain up the clergy on both
>i<! Here was Selden's chief principle of rhuivh
polity, which lir had hrld while Laud ruled, and whk-h In-
held now in a changed world. It was more than Kra-t iani>m :
but he was loiiLj-hradrd enough to piuss for the nonce as
608 LIFE OF MILTON AND HISTORY OF HIS TIME.
only the chief of the Erastians. — —They were but a small
band in the Assembly numerically, but were not to be un-
important. Not themselves believing (at least, the law-
yers and laymen among them) in any absolute or jure
divino form of Church government, settled once for all by
Scripture, but thinking that the form might vary with time
and political circumstances, they could see a clear duty in
the Assembly reserved for them collectively. They might
have their predilections individually for some one form of
Church government; and the predilection of nearly all of
them, I think, was for some kind of Presbyterianism,
though among others there was a leaning to Independency,
or even a lingering kindness for Episcopacy. Their best
plan, however, was not to put forward their own views
positively, but to listen to the schemes of those who
believed that there was a jure divino form of Church rule,
weigh the several schemes thus tendered, criticise them
here and there, and in the end vote for those portions of
the scheme of their predilection which they were convinced
would do, and those modifications of other portions which
had been proved to be reasonable. In the prosecution
of this policy the Erastians of the Assembly were, in more
than one juncture, to be brought into co-operation with the
Independents.1
1 Whitlocke's Memorials, I. 208-9 ; and Gillespie's Notes of the Assembly ;
Fuller's Church Hist. III. 468 ; Neal's Baillie, II. 129 and 190.
Puritans, III. 56 and 110 ; Lightfoot's
END OF VOL. II.
Printed by R. & R. CLARK , Edinburgh..
MASSON, David.
PR
Life of John Milton.
(1638-1643)
3581
JG
v.2
DATE
ISSUED TO
_
STORAGE
MASSON, David.
Life of John Milton.
PR
3581
-H3
v.2